London Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2022: Top Trends and Takeaways

Open­ing image: Simone Rocha Autumn/Winter 2022

Words Liv Leftwich 

From bold brights to cap­ti­vat­ing cuts — the run­ways did not dis­ap­point this season. 

Pre­vail­ing against not one, but three storms – fear­less fash­ion dom­i­nat­ed Lon­don Fash­ion week, gear­ing us up for Fall 2022. Before we turn our atten­tion to Paris, here are our top trends and take­aways from the capital’s collections. 

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Dar­ing­ly Dark 

Regal ruf­fles and vel­vet slips were demon­strat­ed by the likes of Emil­ia Wick­stead and Erdem. How­ev­er, the stand­out star embrac­ing all things sexy and sin­is­ter was none oth­er than Simone Rocha. The low-lit grand hall at Lon­don Inns of Court pro­vid­ed the per­fect set­ting for Rocha’s show – inspired by Irish fable, The Chil­dren of Lir. The dark folktale’s sub­ject mat­ter involves inno­cent chil­dren being trans­formed into swans. The omi­nous under­tones were jux­ta­posed with Rocha’s sub­ver­sive dis­play of fem­i­nin­i­ty. Mod­els wore state­ment gowns – topped off with frill and floun­cy trims, which came in both mini and midi hemlines. 

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More is More 

Roksan­da’s strik­ing scarf dress­es were rem­i­nis­cent of art-deco prints – bold is an under­state­ment. Also chan­nel­ing the colour trend was new­com­er, Con­nor Ives. Inspired by nature and a pletho­ra of art his­to­ry, the col­lec­tion donned a series of looks – all cre­at­ed from sus­tain­able sources. Play­ing on Amer­i­can arche­types, the 90s-esque show iden­ti­fied the design­er as one to watch. The array of vibrant pat­terns epit­o­mised opti­mism – pro­vid­ing the ulti­mate mood-boost­er for post-pan­dem­ic blues. 

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Also empha­sis­ing the feel-good fac­tor was fes­tive fring­ing. Hint­ing back to the roar­ing 20s – bead­ed embell­ish­ments were show­cased by both Halpern and Erdem, to name a couple.

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Sheer Stand­outs 

Body pos­i­tiv­i­ty graced the run­ways, with mod­els of all sizes show­cas­ing the sheer look. From S&M inspired bondage to bare­ly-there bralettes – sex appeal is mak­ing a vast come­back for Autumn/Winter 2022. The kinki­est turn of events occurred on Richard Quinn’s run­way when a dom­i­na­trix walked her latex-cov­ered “gimp” down the cat­walk. How­ev­er, aside from the obvi­ous shock fac­tor — there was a sub­tle poignan­cy to the provo­ca­tion put on dis­play. From Christo­pher Kane’s lumi­nous lay­ers to Nen­si Dojaka’s clever play on reveal and con­ceal – a com­mon theme amongst the shows was a much-need­ed sense of escapism. 

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