In my best outfit, with a coffee in one hand and wiping the sleep from my eyes with the other, I head off to London Fashion Week at Somerset House.
In my best outfit, with a coffee in one hand and wiping the sleep from my eyes with the other, I head off to London Fashion Week at Somerset House.
Although the weather is not on our side, there is a breath of Spanish air breezing through this fashion show. The show in question, of course, is that of one of our most international designers, Emilio de la Morena.
Emilio, who studied at Saint Martins and has worked with designers such as Rafael López and Jonathan Saunders, is once again showing his new Autumn/Winter 2014 collection on the London catwalk.
It only takes two models to walk past for us to feel immersed in the decadence of Goya’s Spain. It is evoked by the length of the clothes, the frills and the bolero jackets. And this is interwoven with the style of the late 70s and the 80s, something which we can see in the use of colour: pink; mauve; crimson; cobalt blue and aquamarine.
As such, the Duchess of Alba is De la Morena’s muse. We are met with a throwback to tassels and ornamentation with large frills. Like in la Maja desnuda (The Nude Maja), sexuality is a major theme in the collection, one which De la Morena conveys through texture and colour. Plastic silk on some of the models gives the whole show a touch of fetishism.
Knee-length cocktail dresses with open shoulders reign supreme in his collection, and they really emphasise the female silhouette. Frills, pleats and transparencies are the most abundant details in his pieces.
Knee-length cocktail dresses with open shoulders reign supreme in his collection, and they really emphasise the female silhouette. Frills, pleats and transparencies are the most abundant details in his pieces.
Our highlights from the collection are the velvet trousers, the silk-lined crochet skirts, the leather-appliqué jackets and the Mongolian lambskin coats in various tones of pink and black, which bring sensuality to the ensemble.
As for the styling of the models, the wet-look hairstyles with a lot of volume at the back and the smoky eyes which the makeup emphasises, all help to give strength to the female image which Emilio presents to us.
A feminine and practical collection, aimed at strong, sensual and modern women with plenty of character. Ultimately this a collection which we will probably see copied by many high-street shops.
[su_note note_color=”#eaeae9″]Translated by Ben Ffrancon Davies[/su_note]