GFW 2010: Skating Away

I already feel like a doofus for missing quite a few of the fashion degree graduate shows already.  It seems like coverage in general of the shows has really ramped up this year and incidentally this is the year, I've also had the most number of students email me their collections beforehand, which just shows that students are looking to blogs to showcase their work on a more one to one basis.  

So, yes, I'm an idiot for some odd flight scheduling.  Oh, and I'm currently angry at JFK for doing tarmac maintenance on the runway and thus preventing me from going to the Ravensbourne show…

Doh… stand out students for me are being noted on a hit list so I will work my way through it one by one…

So let's kick the one on one proceedings with some skating action.  The Westminster show was a few days ago and one of the students, Hannah Menzies quite literally went for gold with her figure skater inspired collection.  I used to think that student collections which really pushed the boundaries to go crazy and extroverted represented strength but now I think it's about carrying an idea and initial inspiration through to fruition, to a focused collection.  Menzies ticks the ready-to-wear box in that her collection can pretty much be worn straight away.  In that respect, I'm selfish in thinking that I'd wear the lot of it…

 

Gotta love a designer who's not afraid to show her model fixing a wedgie…

 

Beneath that slightly shallow reason for liking it, looking at her inspiration images and illustrations it's pretty clear that she hasn't just taken the theme of figure skating at pure face value.  Beyond the choices of pastels, Menzies has really tried to take those costumes and put them into a daily wear context.  These pieces are of course not costumes and take away the white skates (cleverly fixed with perspex wedges so the models can walk in them!) and you have clothes of which elements may remind you of an afternoon watching too much Olympic figure skating or a 90s TV sitcom where some random character takes up figure skating for a day only to find she's not very good at it.

 

 

But back to wearing… hmmm… fluffy pastels, sheer layers, plenty of nude and the opportunity to wear some ridiculous ear muffs with some of the outfits all just poses too much of a temptation for me… the fact that I've labelled it ready to go straight from the catwalk means I'm hoping this stuff won't be left to languish merely on an easy rail at home but perhaps can be put to use straight away…

A closer look at those "skates"…

(Backstage images by Magnus Arrevad)

Photo of one of the outfits which was shot for the Westminster magazines by Brendan Freeman and Brendan Peer… styled by Tank Magazine's Pandora Lennard…