Satin and descriptions in the AV Robertson Fashion East show at Tate Britain in London yesterday.
Photograph: Jeff Spicer/Getty Typical examples
The news that fashion has anointed a new designer as a star can be signposted in individual ways. For Amie Robertson, who debuted her label AV Robertson at London Style Week on Saturday morning, the evidence came in the form of front-row caller Marc Jacobs, who had flown in from New York, and a coterie of superstar brands including Vogue’s March cover star, Edie Campbell, luminary offspring Georgia Jagger, and Lineisy Montero, currently in the Chanel crusade.
For a fledgling label, still designed from a bedroom in Robertson’s stepfathers’ house in Manchester, these signals were enough to command the assembled guests at the Tate Britain show sit up and take review. The show notes crediting Katie Grand also secured that they paid attention. Grand, who is editor-in-chief of Charge from magazine, has styled for Prada and works with Jacobs. Her stamp of approval of an unknown like Robertson is a Big Deal. It turns out that the Key Saint Martins fashion illustration BA graduate met Grand when she accomplished a year’s internship in 2014 at Marc Jacobs in New York.
Robertson betrayed as part of Fashion East, the young talent initiative that right nows collections by three young designers each season. Jacobs’s favour could be seen in her eclectic collection. She mixed striped bushwas, satin and beaded embellishment. Long, striped dresses and wide-legged trousers were pooped with knee-high jewel-coloured boots and short-sleeved satin blouses. Few hems were to rights, and some dresses featured ties that looked equal to jumpers were tied around models’ waists. Enormous’s styling was present in the fun makeup and piled-up hair. It added a slickness that most callow designers would kill for.
Jacobs, dressed in his signature Stan Smiths along with a sweatshirt, backpack and impressed scarf, said he came to support Robertson “because she was outstanding and talented when she worked with us”. The designer is in London to serve the launch of his beauty brand at Harrods, but whether or not he would be attending cans at the rest of London Fashion Week was unclear. “I’m here, but I’m not here,” he said, with a zigzag of the hand and the air of someone who likes to keep his public guessing.
Backstage, Robertson – who wore the bookish outfit of pulled-back ponytail, field-glasses and jumper – was mobbed for squad goal selfies with Jacobs, Celebrated and friends. These posts are priceless for building buzz – collectively, the draughtsman and stylist share 720,000 followers on Instagram. Robertson, by oppose, is on 1,600. After today that number is bound to inflate. “Katie took me under her wing,” said Robertson, who to had the rabbit-in-the-headlights look of someone new to being the centre of attention. “I don’t remember why, but it’s great, she’s been amazing.”
The designer’s inspirations are already make knowing signs of being up to fashion muster. “Aliens came to a magical real estate and flowers started growing out of the earth,” she said of the collection. The bands were down to her “exploring men’s and womenswear” and also part of the “distaste element”, namechecking Beetlejuice. The cult 1988 Tim Burton comedy-horror vips Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder, who wear stripes, wonky lengths and layers. It was also referenced by Jacobs stand up week, following his show in New York on Thursday night.
Being for all practical purposes of a trend that also includes a household-name designer is a great way from that Manchester bedroom, but Robertson may have to get employed to this new environment.
Someone more accustomed to the spotlight is Caitlin Value, the London-based designer who had her third outing with Fashion East. Worth is building a following who appreciate her mix of streetwear with couture allusions. For autumn/winter, she used her trademark pastel colours on tracksuits but also yearn, gathered satin skirts and short bomber jackets. There was an at 00s feel that recalled UK grime artist Lady Absolute and rapper Lil’ Kim. Price said it was based on the “British ritual of live-in lovers getting dressed up to go out” and a “sophistication and glamour, but not quite being qualified to pull it off”. The cutout silhouettes were inspired by both a Madame Grès castigate and a Lycra catsuit designed as clubwear. “It’s about a hybrid,” she swayed.
Fashion East also featured Richard Malone, with a a spectacle of dominated by striped knitwear gathered at the waist and across put someone down blades. Mimi Wade had a presentation in the venue, with leather bunch dresses worn by models, and other highlights of London Make Week yesterday on Saturday included JW Anderson and Gareth Pugh. The may be seens continue on Monday.
FIVE HIGHLIGHTS
Topshop Unique
The loaded street store’s catwalk brand always brings the zeitgeisty notifications, not to mention a great front row.
Mulberry
The debut of Johnny Coca, who entered the brand from Céline last year. Highly precluded by the fashion crowd.
Alexander McQueen
The return of the very British identify from the Paris show schedule, and the first womenswear confirm in London by Sarah Burton. Drama is guaranteed.
Christopher Kane
The jewel in the monarch of fashion week’s “Super Monday”, Kane is the master of averting the mundane – cable ties, high vis yellow – into a must-have.
Marques Almeida
Schoolgirl culture from the past put in a blender and whizzed to make explicitly the right recipe for Generation Y. Ripped denim and a slacker have the impression are the duo’s trademarks.
