Illustrations courtesy Jenny Robins, photos courtesy Catwalking.com.
Mr Costelloe nearly kicked off a fashion feud this weekend when he slagged off celebrity designers: “I object to celebrities sticking their toe in and stepping out again, like Victoria Beckham, Sienna Miller’s sister – they’ll be here for a couple of seasons and then they’re off and we’re still hanging around.”
Sienna Miller cooled the fire by simply sounding a little down about the negativity, as befits her easy-going image: “We never intended to set ourselves up against Christopher Bailey. That would be ridiculous. I don’t claim to be a designer, and I think people were misinterpreting our intentions.”
Microdrama aside, it’s easy to see why a veteran like Costelloe would be feeling a little snide about easy-come-easy-go labels. He’s been patiently going first at LFW for six years, and his collections are the sort of timeless, self-confident clothes that often fly under the radar of a public more interested in trends than quality.
But there’s shininess aplenty in the new collection, and pencils were sharpened and iPhones at the ready as the models stomped out, in gold, devoré velvet and finally silver. Yes – velvet. I was primed for any sign of the fabric of childhood party frocks, with which the catwalks of New York were awash, and straight out of the blocks there was lovely patterned velvet on swishy lampshade skirts.
There were also ra-ra skirted dresses that were fun but somewhat random when mixed in with the tailored suits, all in the same check or shimmery black. The menswear was hilarious – handsomely hirsute gentlemen were done up to look like the BBC version of Robin Hood, and it was very nice.
The hair on the girls was the now-ubiquitous schoolmarm style, a frizzed updo. Other popular motifs included skintight over-the-knee boots and if at times the looks seemed a little bit too accessible (one dress looked a bit Miss Selfridge from my admittedly rather distant viewpoint) it was all done with panache and seemed to be well-received.
A highlight of getting up in time for the Paul Costelloe show was discovering oneself in the middle of the action upon exiting the venue. Sarah Brown unexpectedly appeared to officially open the week, wearing butterfly-printed blue Erdem. I took a sneaky picture of her while standing in the press room afterwards, which went straight up on Twitter. Felt a bit bad about that but at least she looks quite hot from the back.
Madame Brown gave a lovely speech, name-checking McQueen and stating her support for the British fashion industry. Well, it beats showing support for the British ham industry, fine upstanding bunch though I’m sure they are.
Categories ,lfw, ,Paul Costelloe, ,Sienna Miller, ,Somerset House
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