Milan Fashion Week: MOSCHINO AW18

Jeremy Scott amazed the fashion world during Milan Fashion Week as his new AW18 collection for MOSCHINO was the biggest fashion highlight during the weekend.

The collection was a mixture of Pre Fall and FALL for 2018-2019 and we have seen both menswear and womenswear collections on the runway. The mixture between the two was the key for the collection as the designer mixed  masculine and feminine in an assertively subversive way.

Two became one as we had overt dress codes of gender as well. Pent-up pinstripe suiting for her, florals, lace and frou-frou for him

Watch the runway show here: 

London Fashion Week Men's AW18 - REVIEW

Words by Stephen George

The schedule’s short! Menswear is in turmoil!! Fashion week is falling apart at the seams!!! THE BEES ARE DISAPPEARING!!!! The bees disappearing have nothing to do with fashion week but they do share something in common – they represent the current state of the (fashion) industry today. 

We’ve seen the schedules become tighter and smaller - London Fashion Week: Mens neé London Collections: Men was the caped crusader of menswear; at one point spanning five days has been reduced to 3 days for the Autumn/Winter 2018-19 season. Gone are the big hitters – Burberry, J.W. Anderson who have now chosen to follow the same model as Gucci and Balenciaga to show their men’s and women’s collections together. Additionally fashion darling Martine Rose and stalwart are also absent from the schedule.

All together these changes and absences led to a very underwhelming season with a few notable highlights and moments of genius. One plus side of having a very skimpy and light fashion week schedule it makes designers present some of their best work but also the crowd is on high alert for something brilliant and beautiful to come down the runway and take their breath away. For a moment when the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and you put away your phone and enjoy what is being shown in front of you.

John Lawrence Sullivan AW18

John Lawrence Sullivan kicked off the first day of London Fashion Week: Mens by presenting a collection drawing its inspiration from psychopathic thriller movies like Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and Lynch’s Twin Peaks. The Arashi Yanagawa translated this in looks that featured indigo blue jeans mixed with black leather on the legs, worn leather gilets and jackets that tied on the sides like straight jackets. Yanagawa expanded on his signature palette of black and grey with licks of lavender purples and emerald greens. Plaid printed coats and a leopard print overcoat riffed on Hedi Slimane’s Saint Laurent which played into the cowboy western theme. John Lawrence Sullivan is what Vetements wants to be but more authentic and less consumer and appealing to the masses.

The spaghetti western American cowboy inspiration was evident at Astrid Andersen. Despite not being alive for the Buffalo movement she managed to captured and replicate the look with a modern, street wear edge that her brand has been founded on.
All the Andersen signatures were there – lace and logo t-shirts and hoodies, ornate and check printed baggy trousers and shorts sent out to a hip-hop soundtrack and Nike trainers. She added the Buffalo spirit through accessorising looks with Stetson hats, lashings of tweed and shaggy wool.

The standout of day two came at the end of day two from Charles Jeffrey’s Loverboy. Charles Jeffrey is currently riding a momentous career wave. Hailed as London’s contemporary Galliano for this generation he’s coming off the back of winning the award for Emerging Menswear Designer at the British Fashion Awards last month presented by John Galliano himself. He was one of highlights of the MAN show for the three seasons he showed before going it alone. Since then he’s gone from strength to strength with a team comprising of the infamous Gary Card. He’s managed to bring the young gay community collectively together, gave them a space to bring their theatre, drama and performance back to fashion shows, educated the young and unwashed about club kid culture but through it all manage to put a grin on the coldest hearted individual in the room.

Charles Jeffrey AW18

Jeffrey’s shows have a way of transporting you to another place and making you feel some kind of emotion – this year it was anger and fear. Waiting for the show to start figures dressed in dirty, dusty clothes and chalky white faces came out and began screaming; a woman sat next to me jumped out her skin. No one expected it and for over 10 minutes these figures roamed around the runway screaming and yelling at each other and at guests as they were being seated. Like angry, disgruntle toddlers they threw a tantrum! 

When the show started it kicked off with a live band playing a heavy rock version of The Prodigy’s Firestarter instantly transporting us back to the angsty moody teenagers blaring this song out of our bedrooms angry at the world for no reason. As the drums kicked in and heartbeats raced the face model pounded down the runway in a moth eaten double-breasted navy suit fastened with an oversized safety pin – the most wearable look of the collection. Other looks featured an red and blue argyle sweater ballooned and cinched at the waist and a graffiti swiggle print logo long sleeved tee shirt and high waisted light blue trousers with red side stripe on a male model who’s face was painted to resemble Naomi Campbell and a strut to match. The whole time the figures from earlier berate, applaud and react as they walk past.
New to Jeffrey’s vocabulary was the inclusion of tartan midi length skirt suit cinched at the waist and flared at the knee with beret to match or the long length tartan jacket with cropped trouser. All of which were inspired by Jeffrey’s trip to his hometown in Scotland and his Scottish heritage.

Liam Hodges AW18

This feeling of grunge and the 90s rave culture was evident at Liam Hodges. Styled with cartoon flora green hair and extreme makeup featuring X’s on the eyes and a downturned smile on the lips of some of the models. Models took to the checkerboard runway in cartoon graphics of daisies and ghosts t-shirts layered over thin black and white striped long sleeved t-shirts, bleached striped denim matching jacket and trousers complete with FILA sneaker-boots. Hodges drove home his message of youth and enjoying it while it lasted with a finale that had Baz Luhrman’s Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen).

 ‘Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth
oh nevermind;
you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded.
But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself
And recall in a way you can’t grasp now how the possibility lay before
you and how fabulous you really looked…’

London Fashion Week: Mens a few years later; older and wiser still manages to intrigue, entertain and tug at the heart strings. 
 

 

London Fashion Week Men's AW18 - Highlights: DAY 3

The fashion caravan has already trundled off to Milan, but before we take a small break from our reports from Milan, here are a few parting words on some of the last day's highlights and shows.

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Blood Brother

For AW18 Blood Brother takes a look into the Instant Win, Instant Lifestyle promised to us by the omnipotent force that is Camelot & The National Lottery.

Graphic prints continue to be a key feature of the Blood Brother style and with tracksuit on its best his AW18 show was the ideal proposal for the sartorial streetwear aesthetic.

The tailoring details were notable in the biggest part of the collection elevating the looks resulting the sartorial streetwear.

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D.Gnak

A collision of elevated streetwear, traditional Korean silhouettes and Western tailoring, the Autumn Winter 18 collection sees Kang.D work mostly in dark velvets and rich, tactile wools, also introducing jacquards.

Only black and white fabrics can be found in the Autumn Winter 18 collection, resulting in a shadowplay of light and dark, opposing forces and natures.

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Bobby Abley

Singer Kill A Son opened the Bobby Abley AW18 show which was the last one for this fashion week. 

Intense colours and playful combinations  on the runway with Looney Tunes and the heroes of Warner Bros to be the protagonists on the bold prints.

The designer managed to create a different world on the runway- Bobbyland; where everyone is Welcome.

London Fashion Week Men's Highlights: DAY 2

The fashion caravan has already trundled off to Milan, but before we take a small break from our reports from Milan, here are a few parting words on some of the second day highlights and shows. 

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PHOEBE ENGLISH
 

This season the English brand participated with a presentation at The Strand which was strong enough to translate the ethos of the PHOEBE ENGLISH label.

Box and bomber jackets, smart wide trousers and a collaboration with designer Helen Lawrence on chunky knitwear completed the strong visuals of the collection and its installation.

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Christopher RÆBURN

With Innovative design and always #sustainable, the Christopher RÆBURN AW18 collection was for another one time unstoppable. 

The inspiration for the Autumn Winter 18-19 collection comes from the beauty and the fragility of our oceans and it consists of pieces that many times can be more functional than only beautiful or trendy. He  chose his own path, he never follows the trends but who cares; that's the reason we love him.

During the show we noted both male and female models on the runway, even though a big range of the pieces are unisex. A new collaboration with the surf brand Finistere and the Palladium one on footwear completed the sustainable design manifesto. 

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Alex Mullins

Futuristic, colourful and with 90s elements, Alex Mullins rocked the runway. His AW 18 collection pays tribute to the futuristic ideals of his early 90s inspirations of SS18. and continues to revisit his on-going interest of encompassing a timeless wardrobe with a contemporary take.

Coloured spiral tie dye roll necks paired with tailored pieces, cream and camel longline puffer coats and white shirts with modular cut out detailing feature across the collection.

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Charles Jeffrey

Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY presented his Autumn Winter 2018 collection during  London Fashion Week Men’s and he amazed the fashion world, once again. 

We will definitely come back to his collection with another report, but for now we note that in one collection we saw words such as ‘Truth’, ‘Love’, ‘Energy’, ‘Power’, ‘Male’ and ‘Female’ to be translated on clothes. 

Surrealism, intense colours, womenswear on male models and androgynous on female and elements of the Scottish tradition created this collection.

London Fashion Week Men's Highlights: DAY 1

Saturday the 6th of January was the first official day of men's fashion celebration in London. The streets were full of bloggers and fashionistas, the shows were on fire and here are a few parting words on some of the first highlights.

JOHN LAWRENCE SULLIVAN

John Lawrence Sullivan’s founder and designer, Arashi Yanagawa, opened London Fashion Week Men’s with a notable Autumn Winter 2018 collection which we loved here at REY. 

Leather, tailoring, purple and leopard print were some of the strongest elements in the show with the leather gloves to be the 'it' accessories. 

Styled by Anna Pesonen, the collection featured a certain degree of darkness with unambiguous references to films such as Twin Peaks, American Psycho, Matrix and Taxi Driver.

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Ben Sherman x House Of Holland

Presented in a gallery inside Somerset House along the Thames, the show was a combination of dance performance and catwalk for the Ben Sherman x House of Holland collection.

The show featured 29 looks including track pants, fishtail parkas and some very natty Mod suits. Holland’s favoured graphics and the velvet pieces by Sherman were some of our favourite elements of the show but the most notable was the fact the Ben Sherman has sensibly recentered on its UK DNA. 

The show is the latest example of the new direction Ben Sherman had taken since its acquisition by American fashion investment vehicle Marquee.

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Liam Hodges

We all know Liam Hodges as the one who usually break the rules and with his latest show, he did it again. Mix and Match outfits with intense colours,  and strong references from punks to the 90s kids tv shows, were some of the  elements of his AW18 collection.

Polka dots and cartoon graphics on knitwear came as another 'new trend' from the designer and they have been combined with Slim tracksuits, tartan trousers and denim pieces resulting the new wave mix and match aesthetic.

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 Qasimi

Qasimi AW18 collection is definetely one that we love here at REY as it's so close to our style and aesthetic. Inspired by socio-political issues, architecture as well as contemporary art; the new Qasimi collection consists of boxy coats, structured jackets, tartan patterns and wide long trousers.

The colour pallet of the collection comes in contrast with the bold shapes as we note a big range of earth colours and soft shades of burgundy.