LET THE GAMES BEGIN- THOMAS VICARY'S DEBUT

Stoking a fire of warm rusty reds, Thomas Vicary raised the bar for off-schedule designers like a Chinese pole-vaulter this season with his AW09 collection at the Home House hotel in London on Friday. For an abstracted sensory overview of the collection, I visually recommend diving right into a flashback of the intro- scene to irreversable, and you would get the same sense of impending sexual intensity and similar tonal color palette.

Entrusted to help with the fun & faffing backstage, I made an over-flowing a pile of numbered scraps in attempt to aide with the organization but was distracted by the discovery that unzipping some of these dresses is an deliciously artful experience in itself. They wind around and around, silently dissecting the the many seams which slash the figure in a subtle surface of hand-dyed silk.

BTW, I haven't turned and started abusing my position as dresser at this point...! I'm just emphasizing that climbing into these creations would be very very far from a 'pull that over my arse and strike a vogue pose against the cold white tiles in this public bathroom' sort of experience.

With his debut collection since graduating from the MA at CSM, Thomas quite seriously enjoys making a play on contradictory ideals of beauty. Having been Inspired by the contrast of irregular construction and classically glamorous silhouettes, he combined frayed edges and clean lines to the wondrous effect of a fierce fragility.

My favorite piece was the red wool and black chiffon finale-piece which was combined with a giant wooden ring worn around the neck. Later on I tried to don the wooden necklace, but the free drinks compelled me to make disturbing jazz hands at the guests which photographic evidence later suggested made me look like a crazed circus act. Definitely though, the kind of thing I would love to wear in a more sober state in some mood lighting.

Just days after this provision of a red rainbow in womenswear form, I'm pleasured by plenty of red sparkles from Theo Adams at his performance of 'Tonight Is Forever' at the Centre Of The Universe event at the Union Gallery in Southwark . Strangely I find connection in the layered projection of Garland performances and live cabaret presented in the multi-medium performance piece. Emotionally disparate female dancers writhe around Theo as to embody a dangerous hunger for the public exposure of inherit desire to present oneself as a vulnerable product. The dancers eventually torment the space with a sort of shamanistic ritual towards the purposeful anticlimax . The audience is left with an soft wind blowing red tinsel curtains and walls of stained lipstick.

I cant help but feel that London is going to be quite literally seeing red this Winter once the local produce has finished presenting its wares.

I expect the soils of old Hollywood will be dug up for further inspirational presentations this London Fashion Week, Is it that there is a kind of nostalgia for refined iconic behavior? Not refined in that the promotion of realism that surrounds celebrity nowadays is edited out, but that it is presented as romantic in all its disturbia....

Photo by Ludovig Des Cognets and sequin dress by Olivia Heggarty and Pippa Greenbank

MARK FAST & LONDON FASHION WEEK LOVE

IM THINKING...
Mark Fast is definately one to watch this fashion week, there are few people so devoted to the non sculptural knitwear techniques which still hugg the body suffieciently for this great era of the body-sock ( I say era- i really mean demand and admiration). Normally i dont love such flesh-happy attire- but there is huge potential for layering with his stuff, and a great many organic patterns for the eye to wander over.

London fashion week is pending and i am EXCITED, I'm not usually this excitied but its like the britney comeback- everyone wants it to happen dispite the fact people love to be sceptical about it... this is why americans love us so much- we have same optimism against the odds. Maybe if people start banging on about the predictability of NY fashion week a bit more they would up their game with some serious suprises!
I have been reading much about the promotional buzz surrounding LFW not perhaps supporting the easily marketable success of young designers which has been spilling into the press the last few years... and that confidence in the event is lacking despite this.

Although you can hardly expect the sure-fire exceptional execution of each show as a grand cultural event (as in Paris), there are always going to be more suprises because the schedule allows more space for the up-and coming. London after all... is the fountain for innovative ideas as my old tutot used to say, but often these innovators get offers they cannot refuse from rival fashion capitals.

Personally, I don't mourn the loss of our biggest names from the schedule, I think the turnover of great designer produce should be emphasised and promoted. I mean, I love the way fashion houses are nurtured in Paris because of the great respect they have for it as an art, but here in London the people of 'great ideas' are recognised and honoured much before they have reached the peak of refinement, thus providing the element of suprise.