FrontRow: Burberry Spring/Summer 2016, Capes and Youthful Co...

FrontRow: Burberry Spring/Summer 2016, Capes and Youthful Co...: Burberry Spring/Summer 2016 By Liza Foreman It's always showtime at Burberry at London Fashion Week, with this season being no e...

Burberry Spring/Summer 2016, Capes and Youthful Cool

Burberry Spring/Summer 2016

By Liza Foreman

It's always showtime at Burberry at London Fashion Week, with this season being no exception. An orchestra awaited the crowd in the translucent tent venue in Hyde Park, and played from a pit in the middle of the runway, around which models walked.

Like the black tuxedos and white shirts worn by the musicians, the models often sported the same color scheme, and came dressed elegantly for an outing to the Philharmonic or less formally and more playfully, perhaps, for an upscale concert by the likes of the British songstress  Alison Moyet who performed retro British hits for the show.

Some wore black capes clasped together with gold buttons, worn over flowing silk gowns, draped in the tussled locks from these striding young women that had decided to dress up for the occasion in something glam that they had unpacked from one of the large canvas backpacks slung over a long coat.

More of these low slung backpacks, rich embroidery, gold trimmings, mini girly dresses, and men sporting perforated cream rain coats,  and others that came in retro, heavily sequined evening jackets, made it a young, fun and varied show that riffed off both past century heroines and pop-ish styles from more recent generations, in this inventive preppy wardrobe for modern times.

FrontRow: Julien MacDonald Spring/Summer 2016, Slits and Gli...

FrontRow: Julien MacDonald Spring/Summer 2016, Slits and Gli...: By Liza Foreman Julien MacDonald Spring/Summer 2016 It felt like a club night at 11 a.m. on Saturday morning, at the storied Smithfiel...

Julien MacDonald Spring/Summer 2016, Slits and Glitz for Boys and Girls

By Liza Foreman

Julien MacDonald

Spring/Summer 2016

It felt like a club night at 11 a.m. on Saturday morning, at the storied Smithfields market hall, as London fashionista gathered to the beats booming under the old-world clocks and wrought iron frameworks of the designer Julien MacDonald's chosen venue.

Then the sound of an aircraft landing echoed through the sound system, followed by a deep voice that called out, " Pleased to meet you," as the first model walked in a skimpy black dress, comprised of slits and feather-like trim that adorned the body in a design that looked like a punk T shirt turned into Gothic, sexy eveningwear for bad girls.

The theme continued with a figure hugging women's trouser suit, made of slashed together threads, that revealed the body beautiful.

But this season, MacDonald is debuting his menswear line.

And so a decidedly hot young model soon followed, his bare chest draped in a green dressing gown design, decorated in gentleman- like Paisley swirls, that could be seen again an an oblong top in navy worn by a boyish model, that looked like a Tunic- style dress, as the designer mixed men's and women's looks that shared multiple themes.

Think rich glittering golds and heavy silver embroidery, found in floor length dresses and girl and boy short designs that were sexy and richly decorated, not to mention his updated Paisley goes Tribal style patterns that could be found throughout.

The slits were a recurring theme, and found again in a tight slashed short ensemble for men.

Another male model sported silk boxers hung low on his hips, while the next came wearing designer Bermudas with a long sleeved oblong top that looked silky and inspired perhaps by dressing gowns of old but designed for the outdoors warrior.

For womenswear, a combination of rich embroidery and mesh on figure hugging mini dresses, ranged from the gaudy to St Tropez night club white mini dresses, to the visionary in the form of a mini dress in embroidered orange lace and tulle that ruffled around the hips like a starched tutu.

MacDonald got a raucous round of applause as he took a bow with his final look, an ornate white wedding dress, as the audience filed out to a remix of Michael Jackson 's 
I'm Bad. Indeed. But he sent out dresses for all occasions and menswear with a young upmarket slant.

Schiaparelli Couture Fall/Winter 2015

By Liza Foreman

Well there is retro fashion, and then there is Elsa Schiaparelli and the joy of the house being recently revived to show beautifully designed throwback creations to the designer, for the couture season Fall/Winter 2015.

Somewhat theatrical in nature, like the designer herself, the collection was fittingly shown in a faux theater that harked back to yesteryear, and was called the Theatre D' Elsa, on the Place Vendome.

Where else, for a brand with such an illustrious history?

20s-style doorways framed the runway and posters in suitably antiquated colors hung on the walls, and matched some of those found inside the decorative folder of show notes that included old world illustrations.

The Piece En 2 Actes, or the "Ce Soir, On Jour" collection, included smatterings of the late designer's favorite color, shocking pink, found in high heeled shoes or in a floor-length flyaway gown that looked Grecian in style, like some other pieces, some of which were decorated with images from Greek-style murals.

The eccentric nature of the house could be seen throughout, from a furry waistcoat and knee-length length wooly widecut trousers, to an oversized thermal looking pink skirt decked in images of a Betty Boo style woman's head wrapped in a scarf. 

And the house drew on styles from multiple eras in history, but clothed them all with a Schiaparelli twist.

There was a wartime civilian women's suit in brown tweed patchwork, dressed up with silver detailing on the collar that worked like a riff on the decoration from a military uniform.

There were decorative capes from yesteryear and rich glittering patterned materials rich with the empire, used for dresses cinched at the waist and three-quarter length trousers that worked like period pieces but, a la Schiap, retained a sense of modernity, be it from the choice of a particularly offbeat yellow, to the fact that some of the designs were combined with, say, an OTT pink polar bear sleeveless top, giving the ensemble a sense of the quirky and irreverent.

Others, like an ostentatious looking see-through blue floor-length gown, a la Marie Antoinette, with a rich embroidered black collar reaching to the midriff and revealing a line of pure white flesh, used technology or light prints on the material.

It is a delight to see such beautiful creativity, and the reworking of such an original visionary that stays true to the house's history and still stands out today.

The looks are like rare butterflies flitting through the crowded fashion scene.

Even the descriptions provided in the show notes work like a delectable menu to warm the appetite:

"A moonstruck chiffon dress and 'in the night" biker jacket, or a midnight silk velvet dress embroidered with flowers of garden pailletes and golden volutes, or a suit made of patches of tweed embroidered with zinc pailletes," read the notes.

Versace Fall/Winter 2015 Couture

By Liza Foreman

Models with straggled locks of blond hair, crowned in pretty flower chains, like those decorating the dresses, strode down the Paris runway for Versace with a nonchalance and air of Boho glamor, for the opening night of couture week in Paris.

It was as if Saint Laurent designer Hedi Slimane had taken his California cool aesthetic on show at his menswear collections and worked with Donatella Versace, with her beautiful craftsmanship and flamboyant detailing, to create a series of luxurious dresses that had a certain free love flair.

Indeed, love was in the air. In the show notes for the collection, the designer said, "The ethereal nature of these light as air dresses reflected a woman's passions exposed."

Sometimes she was a cute lioness, and at other times a prowling tiger.

In keeping with the Versace aesthetic, these luxurious creations were sometimes floor length and flouncy and at other times slight and sexy, think dresses that revealed sensual strips of flesh.

The idea was, "A new Versace evolution. Elevated deconstruction, softness," the house said in the show notes.

They continued:

"Stripped of detail, transparent silk chiffon gowns flow from boned bodices lined in velvet, the fabric free to float as if pure air.... Lightweight chiffon layers bring softness to tailoring, especially with the drape of bell sleeves. The tailoring is punctuated by metal staples that define the silhouette....Cut-out chiffon layers create raw-edged flowers that decorate chiffon dresses in dove grey, powdery pink, faded green and lilac....Fil coupé velvet and hand-painted flowers are floating on a long gown as if destroyed, with boning lined in velvet. A string of flowers trails up to hold the dress at the neck and the head....A new sense of ease comes from an oversized embellished sweater which hangs off the shoulder, worn over a floor length embellished slip dress, held just by slender shoulder straps."

FrontRow: Issey Miyake Color For Men's Summer 2016

FrontRow: Issey Miyake Color For Men's Summer 2016: Issey Miyake Men Spring/Summer 2016 A wooden sign post reading Issey Miyake, set amid the foliage leading into the Musee de Quai Branly, s...