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From Simone Rocha’s Wheat Sheaf-Clad Harvesters to Harris Reed’s Gilded Harlequins, the Scene was Set for the Maverick Theatrics that we’ve come to Know and Love at London Fashion Week.

A wheat sheaf creation. At Simone Rocha

Image and Video Credit London Fashion Week, Participating Designers and Vogue

London Fashion Week, that highly anticipated event on the global fashion calendar famous for Its maverick design antics and avant-garde, experimental & ground-breaking designers, has again exploded across the British capital. The entire fashion establishment – or so it seems – has descended upon London to soak up the titillating atmosphere and pay homage to their favourite designers – the likes of Irish powerhouse Simone Rocha and local British designers Roksanda, Molly Goddart, Harris Reed and Edward Crutchley, to name but a few. ‘Not-a-newcomer-anymore’ Robyn Lynch added another touch of (green) Irish sparkle to the occasion too!

The entire event has been dedicated to one of the greatest British icons of all times, the late Dame Vivienne Westwood, whose memorial service on February 16^th read like a who’s who of supermodels, actors, rock stars and designers, from Kate Moss to Helena Bonham-Carter and Victoria Beckham – all having been touched in one way or another by the momentous design genius of Dame Viv, all dressed to the nines in their favourite piece of Westwood.

London Fashion Week AW 2023 has been showcasing a host of extraordinary talent, a week that’ll end on a momentous high when quintessential British design house Burberry presents its collection. In the meantime, we’ve made a little shortlist of our favourite designers and key pieces within each collection to give you a taster of what’s been going down – just in case you couldn’t get your hands on those coveted front row tickets …

Sit back, relax and marvel in all the glorious magic!

SIMONE ROCHA

A designer who typically draws on her Irish heritage for inspiration and reference, has done so again. Rocha’s starting point for this AW collection is the pagan harvest festival of Lughnasa, a ritual that offers the opportunity to thank nature, but also one where communities can get together, interact and mingle. Rocha’s designs for this AW 2023 collection build on this very thing: women and men liking and wearing similar pieces, indiscriminate of who they were traditionally intended for – a trend we’ve seen blossoming at fashion weeks over the past few years now.

On a blood red carpet inside a cathedral Rocha’s models strutted their stuff: wheat sheaf dresses and layered, voluminous raffia ‘milkmaids’ skirts, intricately embroidered lace gowns, rural tulle overdresses, ‘soiled’ sheath dresses and even some workmen’s leather were all testament to a designer who thinks out of the box when creating a collection. The gender-neutral sailor suits – some in virginal white lace – showed how effortless the leap and the overlap from men’s to women’s design could be. Symbolism is something we’ve come to expect from Rocha’s collections: the red ribbons on the garments and falling from models’ hair and eyes allegedly represent blood that was applied in pagan culture to children’s faces to ward off evil spirits!

They say you reap what you sow … evidently Rocha has thought long and hard about the harvest, and what it’ll yield for our AW wardrobes come fall! Relish in all the stunning textures, the use of colour and the ingenious little details of this collection.

Golden wheat! At Simone Rocha

A nude balconette dress with a red ribbon. At Simone Rocha

A bountiful dress with hooped underskirt. At Simone Rocha

Raffia stuffing! At Simone Rocha

Leather ‘workwear’ and over-the-knee socks. At Simone Rocha

Nature’s bounty. At Simone Rocha

A necklace fit for a special ritual. At Simone Rocha

A stunning raffia and black lace milkmaid’s dress. At Simone Rocha

Virginal lace and a sailor’s collar. At Simone Rocha

Raffia stuffing. At Simone Rocha

White lace from top to bottom. At Simone Rocha

HARRIS REED

Pure theatre! And where more suited to showcase a collection that’s far closer to art than fashion than at the Tate Modern? Harris Reed, a Central Saint St Martins graduate (who’s about to start as creative director at Nina Ricci in Paris) created a collection of 10 otherworldly pieces that are as cinematic as they are head-turning. Quoting from Shakespeare’s As You Like It, Reed said, “All the world’s a stage,” and “I’m someone who likes to play with grandeur and performative clothing. So I loved how in William Shakespeare, back in the day—even though it was different—men are dressing like women. This constant gender play for me felt very aligned with the brand.”

But this collection is so much more than historic and literary gender commentary – it’s wildly eccentric, deliciously avant-garde, super elegant and uber-glamorous complete with gold lame, panniers, stoles and asymmetry. Enjoy the wonderous frivolity, excess and escapism!

Gilded organic shapes and harlequin leggings. At Harris Reed

Gold lame bride with veil and train. At Harris Reed

Circular dress and halo. At Harris Reed

A velvet bustiere dress. At Harris Reed

Asymmetry. At Harris Reed

A shapely bucket hat and seventies flares. At Harris Reed

Gold lame bustles of epic proportions. At Harris Reed

ROKSANDA

Roksanda Ilincic seems to have taken a little world tour. The result? A sculptural extravaganza of powerful shapes, drapes, textures, colours and more than a touch of symbolism. Case in point – the elegant head scarves, head-coverings, hoods, capes, coats and blankets in their radiant shades.

A queen of colour blocking, Illincic yet again showed her mastery of combining colours and textures in such a way that they’re fresh and novel. Many of the gowns in this collection ooze that fluidity that Illincic so readily conjures up (like the canary yellow tunic with its dove grey gloves), but there were also some very sculptural pieces (like the 3-D asymmetrical Greek-style cobalt blue ball gown and the waterlily-shade mini frock with its draped train).

Textures also feature big time in this collection: take for example the lavender dress constructed from layers and layers of finely gathered fabric, or the silver and peppermint-green foil dress with its oversized sleeves …

These creations are feminine and poetic; they celebrate women and their precious customs across the world.

Tiered frills. At Roksanda

A structured and sculpted dress in waterlily. At Roksanda

Sculpted drapes. At Roksanda

Vibrant colours in this blanket. At Roksanda

A fluid canary yellow tunic. At Roksanda

A headscarf dress. At Roksanda

A sculptural cape in shocking pink, worn over a yellow printed tunic. At Roksanda

Contrasting colours. At Roksanda

Sculptural and avant-garde. At Roksanda

Stunning gilded textures. At Roksanda

A peppermint and silver foiled dress with oversized sleeves. At Roksanda

MOLLY GODDART

The trademark voluminous tulle skirts that Molly Goddart is so famous for were notably absent from this AW collection. Instead, we got some very cute, knitted cardi twinsets and a few very preppy coats, jackets and blazers with stripy ribbon and velvet inserts. No Molly Goddart show, however, would be complete without a nod to her beloved tulle, and there were indeed a few paired-down tiered tulle skirts. The showstopper of the collection was undoubtedly the boob-tube leopard print tulle overlay leopard print dress.

This is a nostalgic – almost bordering on grunge – collection that displayed the quintessential Molly Goddart signature, but without the usual delicious overdose of explosive tulle skirts and underskirts.

A cute cardi twinset. At Molly Goddart

Ribbon inlays. At Molly Goddart

A showstopper leopard dress. At Molly Goddart

A grunge-y ensemble. At Molly Goddart

A layered tulle cocktail dress. At Molly Goddart

ROBYN LYNCH

Mmmm … wonder why Robyn Lynch has a perceptual set for the colour green? Would her Irish heritage have anything to do with this fabulous shades-of-green collection for AW 2023 at London Fashion Week? Sage green, brightest neon, deepest forest and pastel peppermint across various stunning machine and hand knits (and some matching tailoring) look very, well, shamrock, indeed. Winner of the Woolmark Prize Award, much of Lynch’s work is crafted from delicious merino wool. At times the collection appears preppy and school uniform-esque, at times one can detect endearing touches of recycled and upcycled details … this is a collection that’s very confident, most covetable and very, very wearable indeed.

Leaf green knits. At Robyn Lynch

Olive green. At Robyn Lynch

Sage green. At Robyn Lynch

Waterlily green. At Robyn Lynch

EDWARD CRUTCHLEY

Allegedly Edward Crutchley was inspired by the period in (fashion) history between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The harlequin-esque shapes certainly look pretty Florentine and in truth, it’s as if Crutchley rounded up a set of Chaucerian characters to parade his pieces! Tracksuits, knitwear and tunics emblazoned with strange cartoon characters, some draped tailoring, frou-frou frilly tunics, V-necks, bucket hats … and … codpieces! A bizarrely fascinating collection that certainly rings true for the old adage, ‘to each their own’!

Watch Edward Crutchley’s runway show here:

A cartoon-character tunic. At Edward Crutchley

Patchwork tracksuit. At Edward Crutchley

A V-neck cartoon knit. At Edward Crutchley

Harlequin-inspired. At Edward Crutchley

THAT cod-piece!! At Edward Crutchley

A bra inspired by the codpiece? At Edward Crutchley

The Joker with a bucket hat! At Edward Crutchley