Topman Autumn/Winter 2012 Live Exclusive!

Don't miss the live streaming of Topman Design Autumn/Winter 2012 runway show brought to you by The Style Examiner! The show will begin streaming here at 12.15pm (GMT) on Wednesday 22 February 2012.

DAKS Womenswear Autumn/Winter 2012

For her DAKS womenswear Autumn/Winter 2012 collection in the year that the brand celebrates 50 years as holder of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Royal Warrant, Sheila McKain-Waid took inspiration from the inherent dichotomies and similarities that are found in British landscape and architecture. The focal points of this very elegant collection are construction and the geometry and shapes created by sophisticated seaming, smoking and pleating techniques.

McKain-Waid studied Apparel Design at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology and completed a BA (Hons) degree in Textiles Design at the University of Kansas. Before DAKS, she honed her skills in dealing with luxury materials and craftsmanship at Halston, Donna Karen and Oscar de la Renta. With a personal appreciation for architecture (and citing Zaha Hadid as a role model), it is no surprise that her latest collection for DAKS is heavily architectural.

The layering and pleating effects evidenced throughout the collection rely on precise geometric balances that evoke twentieth century architecture movements such as Modernism and Art Deco. The overall shapes are elegantly elongated and made stronger by manipulating contrasting shapes, fabrics and colours.

In fact, the entire collection can be understood as a study in contrasts at many levels: Fine silk crepe dresses and blouses are paired with voluminous wools tweeds; delicate linear pleats are worn under cocoon-shaped coats; traditionally crafted Scottish knits are complemented by innovative laser-cut bags; modern technical nylons are traditionally quilted; rich layers are set against the clean lines of cutaway silks; fluid drapes are paired with soli knits; and rich reds and vicunas contrast with stark black and ivory.

As a whole, this is a highly accomplished collection of garments that embody a very different tone from the playful and colourful ambiance of the previous Spring/Summer 2012 range. Appointing McKain-Waid was most certainly a wise replacement to Giles Deacon (appointed in 2006 to design the womenswear range for three seasons) to keep the 118-year-old fashion house in tune with its tradition while keeping an eye on its commercial future.

Photographs courtesy of catwalking.com

Georgia Hardinge Autumn/Winter 2012

Fashion designer Georgia Hardinge’s star is undoubtedly shining brighter every season. Her Autumn/Winter 2012 womenswear collection, with the title ‘Inverted’, confirms not only her sartorial ingenuity but also her competent command of print, texture and volume as ways to appropriate art to the service of fashion.

The garments designed by London-based Hardinge for ‘Inverted’ continue to explore recurrent themes from her previous collections: the notions of strong Cubist angularity and flowing softness are contrasted and forced to cohabit in the clothes conceived to clad confident women. Thick and yet soft wool knitwear (in trousers, tops, coats, and shorts) and wool pieces contrast with long and vaporous blouses, dresses and skirts to provide a sense of depth and scale. This combination of opposites takes place in the form of opposing flowing skirts and thick wool jumpers, or by adding thick wool cuffs to delicate chiffon sleeves. The print range and colour palette reinforces the notion of duality by matching abstract organic shapes with plain monochrome fabrics, and by alternating neutral creams and off-whites with mustard, burgundy, and bright orange and blue.

Georgia Hardinge graduated from Parsons Paris School of Art and Design in 2008 with a collection that garnered the Golden Thimble award for best designer. At that moment, she was recognized for creating highly technical and structured designs, and her clothes were described by designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac as ‘little pieces of fresh poetry’. Spotting her creativity and commercial flair, Samsung chose her to create a one-off collection for an advertisement that was aired worldwide. Since her return to London in early 2009, Hardinge has been involved in numerous projects and has delivered five collections under her own label.

In July of 2009, she was chosen to take part in ‘All Walks Beyond the Catwalk’, a project set up by Caryn Franklin and Erin O'Connor with the intention to challenge fashion expectations about women. The catwalk event, which showcased female models of different ages, shapes and sizes, also included designers Mark Fast, Hannah Marshall and David Koma. Hardinge went on to show her designs in September 2009 as part of independent fashion showcase ON|OFF, alongside London Fashion Week. The following season, she exhibited her Autumn/Winter 2010 collection as a promotional fashion film with the title ‘Cage’. Hardinge’s Autumn/Winter 2011 first stand-alone runway show at Vauxhall Fashion Scout was greeted with a great deal of success, allowing her to receive a merit award and be described as ‘one to watch’.

There is little doubt that, since its foundation, the Georgia Hardinge brand has been growing at a very swift pace. As other recent examples of success, Hardinge was commissioned by L’Oreal to make six dresses for their Colour Trophy Grand Final Show, received sponsorship from Swarovski to work with Charlotte Stockdale on a project that took place in late 2011, and has seen her designs worn by a number of celebrities (including Beyoncé and Lady Gaga). Georgia Hardinge’s clothes can be found in retailers in Australia, Canada, Japan, Latvia, UAE, UK, and the USA.

Photographs © 2011 Christopher Dadey

Corrie Nielsen Autumn/Winter 2012

Corrie Nielsen is a fashion designer who is clearly not afraid of dissecting the history of British fashion and costume in order to find inspiration for her collections. Whether as manifestly influenced by Elizabethan court and drama costumes or by Victorian dresses and capes, Nielsen’s garments are unapologetic embodiments of a personal reclamation of British ancestry.

Born in the USA to a mother who was a dress maker, Nielsen developed an interest in fashion from an early age. She grew up in Florida and Washington DC but always felt drawn to her British heritage: most of her family is English, although her great-great-great-grandfather John S. Burns was a Scotsman. The Scottish family roots are present throughout Nielsen’s Autumn/Winter 2012 collection, which is titled ‘Vestiarium Scoticum’ after the apocryphal 1842 volume that purported to be a reproduction, with colour illustrations, of an ancient manuscript on the clan tartans of Scottish families.

Despite its controversial status, and now confirmed lack of authenticity, the ‘Vestiarium Scoticum’ acquired tremendous importance after its publication, with many of the designs and patterns it contained becoming official clan tartans. It is interesting, therefore, that many decades later, the Scottish imagery and tartan patterns influenced by the Vestiarium become once again freely reinterpreted by an American fashion designer as approximate materializations of couture.

Corrie Nielsen moved to London in 2000 to study Fashion at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design. Between 2000 and 2006 she worked for Vivienne Westwood, a designer whose influence is also very evident in Nielsen’s collections. In 2010, the fashion establishment started paying attention to her, when she received the Fashion Fringe award from John Galliano. Since then, Nielsen has established her studio in the vaults of Somerset House in central London, the building that also houses the British Fashion Council and hosts London Fashion Week twice yearly.

For Autumn/Winter 2012, Corrie Nielsen’s collection of sculptural forms for evening and daywear includes jackets with voluminous peplums, pencil skirts with side slits, wool trousers tapered below the knee, high-neck blouses in chiffon or silk grosgrain with lace overlay, and an abundance of tartans covered in plain or dotted overlays. Most pieces rely on expertly positioned pleats (quite often on the back of skirts and dresses, allowing for a swish effect) that contribute to effective illusions of depth and movement. Simultaneously, the garments evoke traditional Scottish garb in elements such as traditional sashes layered across the chest, large pins, or the beautiful Emma Yeo hats inspired by Scottish bonnets adorned with pheasant feathers. Key pieces of the collection include the Le Cigale oversized skirt in black and white tartan, and a stunning floor-sweeping cape in vivid dark blue Duchess Satin. United Nude provided remarkable footwear in the form of flats and woven leather high-heeled shoes.

With such an ambitious collection where volume, layering and pleating played such important parts, Corrie Nielsen’s Autumn/Winter 2012 collection confirms that her professional plans may lay elsewhere. If London and British ancestry have served as sources of sartorial influence, Nielsen’s Vestiarium Scoticum range confirms what she has claimed more than once: that her ambition is to concentrate on producing couture, ideally from a studio in Paris.

Photographs courtesy of catwalking.com