London Fashion Week is well under way, and is proving to be as dynamic as ever, despite the absence of big labels such as Burberry and Victoria Beckham. At the weekend, some highly creative shows were staged in a mix of in-person, as well as digital, presentations.
Click through the photo gallery above to see some looks from London Fashion Week.
Perhaps as a result of the pandemic or Brexit, many British designers looked to the past for inspiration, with the 1930s, '70s and '80s all making a return.
Here are some of the highlights:
Vivienne Westwood
Now aged 80, Westwood, a pervasive influence on fashion both in the UK and around the world, has revisited many of her key moments for spring/summer 2022. In this latest outing, two archive collections are name checked, from 1981 and 1990 respectively.
The Pirate Collection from the early 1980s gave us the famous buckle-up Pirate boot, here reworked in a patterned covering. The oversize hats and loose cuts, too, all reappear, now remade for today.
Westwood's 1990 corset collection also made an appearance, with model Georgia May Jagger tight-laced into a series of boned corsets, pantaloons and high, high heels that echoed Westwood's one-time muse, the model Sara Stockbridge.
Preen by Thornton Bregazzi
In another case of nostalgia, this married design couple took inspiration from the 1980s, with plenty of power shoulders and drop-waist dresses to show for it.
A colour palette taken from the old television test card – those born after 1980 may have no idea what this even is – provided the framework for jumpers and jackets pieced from recycled knitwear. Cut and patched with abandon, no two items were the same.
Matty Bovan
This talented, if eccentric designer also looked to the 1970s for this collection, in particular the fabulous wallpapers of the era. With the brash patterning now reworked into fabrics, Bovan set about gathering it into great puffball skirts, or pulled tight as skinny fit tops.
Keen to produce the whole collection in the UK, Bovan sourced local knitters to create the crochet granny squares that made up circular capes and jellyfish-ish dresses.
Molly Goddard
Known for her fondness for smocking, Goddard delivered smocked looks for both men and women in an appealing show. Boys arrived with swing tops gathered across the chest, while the girls donned layered netting looks with puffs and ruffs of extra fabric. Given a new twist, however, the pieces are meant for everyday wear, and were shown layered over jeans and tracksuit pants.
Temperley of London
For her spring/summer 2022 show, designer Alice Temperley looked to the British whodunnit writer Agatha Christie. As one of Temperley's favourite eras, the cuts and styles of the 1930s were given an update, either as a vintage salmon silk dressing gown, conjured into an elegant evening dress, or Art Deco geometric patterns scattered across a beaded gown with matching cape. Into all this, Temperley also folded the Biba-esque freedom of the 1970s, now imagined as circular prairie dresses and tiered, flouncy dresses.
Read more
A hybrid London Fashion Week kicks off in style with runway shows
Jetour T1 specs
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The specs
Common to all models unless otherwise stated
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MATCH INFO
Juventus 1 (Dybala 45')
Lazio 3 (Alberto 16', Lulic 73', Cataldi 90 4')
Red card: Rodrigo Bentancur (Juventus)
Have you been targeted?
Tuan Phan of SimplyFI.org lists five signs you have been mis-sold to:
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The biog
Alwyn Stephen says much of his success is a result of taking an educated chance on business decisions.
His advice to anyone starting out in business is to have no fear as life is about taking on challenges.
“If you have the ambition and dream of something, follow that dream, be positive, determined and set goals.
"Nothing and no-one can stop you from succeeding with the right work application, and a little bit of luck along the way.”
Mr Stephen sells his luxury fragrances at selected perfumeries around the UAE, including the House of Niche Boutique in Al Seef.
He relaxes by spending time with his family at home, and enjoying his wife’s India cooking.
The%20specs
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Cinco in numbers
Dh3.7 million
The estimated cost of Victoria Swarovski’s gem-encrusted Michael Cinco wedding gown
46
The number, in kilograms, that Swarovski’s wedding gown weighed.
1,000
The hours it took to create Cinco’s vermillion petal gown, as seen in his atelier [note, is the one he’s playing with in the corner of a room]
50
How many looks Cinco has created in a new collection to celebrate Ballet Philippines’ 50th birthday
3,000
The hours needed to create the butterfly gown worn by Aishwarya Rai to the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.
1.1 million
The number of followers that Michael Cinco’s Instagram account has garnered.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
1,942 teams
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76 nations
26 UAE teams
15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
