London Fashion Week: Aksu vs McDonald

For anyone living under a rock i.e. has neither Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, then you may not be aware that it’s London Fashion Week. New York passed us the baton and wow, have we gone with it hard. Since Friday, the only word on everyone’s lips has been ‘fashion’. Designers new and old flocked to Somerset House and the likes to showcase their latest spring/summer 2015 designs. Two of these fashion houses that always impress and did not falter this season were, Bora Aksu and Julien McDonald.

London based Turkish designer and Central St Martins Graduate Bora Aksu catapulted into LFW eight years ago and he hasn’t stopped taking woman’s fashion onto higher ground. This s/s season he offered a dichotomy of style, illustrating the feminine ethereal woman in the first half, then moving onto the dark seductress in the latter. It would almost appear that he made two collections and not one. But you can begin to understand the philosophy behind the stitching; a woman can encapsulate and embody both innocence and cunning, day and night.

The excess of organza frills; lace and crotchets left little doubt of the romanticism influence in Aksu’s collection. And yet, all it took was a swift change in music, lullaby to rock, to move from this innocence. In case anyone missed the transition, the pièce de résistance of the show, the sheer purple high neck maxi dress swerved the direction to a whole different level.

On day two it was Julien McDonald’s show which caught my attention. I mean, no one quite does sophisticated glamour like Julien, as evident by the number of strictly come dancing contestants and alumni sitting on the front row in the Royal Opera House. He opened with fitted pencil midi dresses, cut in intricate designs with sheer panels to add a bit of ‘sexy’ into the outfit. Ruffles, lace, floral prints and feathers all adorned his designs giving the front row and the online row (i.e. me) all what we wanted to see.

Hand sewn detailing is one of McDonalds strongest assets and this was so vividly displayed in his maxi evening dresses which all glided down the runway fitted with a flowing chiffon tail.