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Day 1 of LFW saw the Central Saint Martins MA show and Louise Wilson’s latest crop of cutting-edge youngsters. This year, severe boxy cuts, flowing ceremonial robes and arty conceptualism were all trending. So much talent, here’s a look at four, in order of appearance:
1. Kenji Kawasumi
Japanese designer Kenji dressed his men in undulating foam trousers like light lemon meringues, strawberry shortcake skirts of textured underlay, and cornflower suits sculpted out of insulation. It all looked lovely but, like a Gremlin, it must never get wet! This was i-D’s CSM menswear crush, without a doubt.
2. Erna Einarsdottir
Erna Einarsdottir showed a chilly, monochromatic collection with a distinct Scandinavian atmosphere. Girls wore flecked woolly jumpers with baggy pulled-up sleeves – sometimes with pencil skirts and sometimes with patchwork skirts of frosty silver-greys and black ices – and cool metallic pool sandals. A perfect take on ‘The Killing’ chic.
3. Estefania Cortes Hawker
All that glitters is not gold but Estefania was utterly astounding. She showed bonkers shimmering sandpaper-like dresses and over-sized cut-out bling in pink, gold and blue. Though this was a sexy, short-cut womenswear collection, we could still imagine Kanye wearing its key looks at this year’s Coachella! CSM superstar Gareth Pugh was sat on the front row, and this collection brought a smile to his face.
4. Helen Lawrence
Helen showed a Mary Frankenstein’s monster of a collection; all crazy, curvy patchwork paving, collaged together with mad scientist stitching in thick black wires. To top it all off she added a dash of statement sportswear – and a timely nod to Olympic equestrianism – through pairs of transparent vacuum-formed plastic jodhpurs. Helen’s look was sporty and architectural, and hopefully impressed formidable frower Zaha Hadid… wow, what a show!
Text: Dean Kissick
Photography: Mitchell Sams
Click here to see our AW12 Womenswear coverage in full.
