LFW SS23 highlights — Cancellations, tributes to the Queen and the comeback of lace detailing

Words Ruta Jane

Major news of the Queen’s pass­ing has hit Lon­don just before the Lon­don Fash­ion Week.
High­ly antic­i­pat­ed brands like Burber­ry and Raf Simons would no longer be hav­ing their
run­way shows out of respect for the mourn­ing peri­od. Many oth­er brands had to fol­low in
their foot­steps due to restrict­ed access to the venues or the can­cel­la­tion of all the parties
that did not match the require­ments of the col­lec­tion pre­sen­ta­tions. Despite the disruptions,
Lon­don Fash­ion Week has car­ried on. It was qui­et and respect­ful, nonethe­less, the
Spring/Summer 2023 sea­son has come with a visu­al bang and did not disappoint. 

To no one’s sur­prise, this Spring/Summer sea­son, flo­rals and colours are flour­ish­ing, but
whether inten­tion­al­ly or not, there was a cer­tain dark­ness in the col­lec­tions. A big funeral
sta­ple — lace, has made a come­back, as seen in Nen­si Doja­ka, JW Ander­son, Christopher
Kane, Erdem, and the most melan­cholic of them all — Richard Quinn. 

RICHARD QUINN

The trib­ute to the late monarch was loud and clear in Richard Quinn’s SS23 run­way show.
The Queen has pre­vi­ous­ly sat in the front row of his show in the 2018 mak­ing her fashion
week debut and award­ed him with the first annu­al Queen Eliz­a­beth II Award for Design,
which has boost­ed the designer’s career sig­nif­i­cant­ly. Richard Quinn has closed this
Lon­don Fash­ion Week mark­ing the end of Queen Eliz­a­beth II’s reign with mod­els wearing
daz­zling black mourn­ing veils, tiaras and the Queen’s sta­ple — a large hat, while still
includ­ing his sig­na­ture latex fea­tures. The first 22 black looks have been cre­at­ed in 10 days
fol­low­ing the Queen’s death. 

Fol­low­ing the trib­ute to the monarch, the orig­i­nal SS23 col­lec­tion has blos­somed, models
have walked out in aston­ish­ing bead­ed flow­ery dress­es and body­suits, with over­sized roses
on their necks, con­tin­u­ing to colour­ful coats and the big finale — the wed­ding gown, which
fea­tured white flo­ral embroi­dery and a long veil cov­er­ing the model’s face, overshadowing
the grief in the rest of the collection. 

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Richard Quinn Spring 2023 Ready-to-wear

JW ANDERSON

The mas­ter of the clean and bizarre mix JW Ander­son has shown his skills yet again in his
new SS23 col­lec­tion. From a gold­fish in a plas­tic bag to ele­gant silk dress­es with lace
detail­ing, the col­lec­tion had it all. Fair­ly sim­ple sil­hou­ettes were cov­ered in key­board keys,
turned upside down, had a map of the plan­et or post­card pic­ture prints and last, but not
least, a giant met­al ball dress reflect­ing the lights and the audi­ence. JW Ander­son has really
bent our minds with his abil­i­ty to make some­thing sim­ple into fash­ion­able art pieces. The
col­lec­tion has also includ­ed ele­gant shoul­der, leg or hip bar­ing dress­es, as well as
over­sized streetwear com­bos. And of course, a black graph­ic T‑Shirt with a trib­ute to the
Queen. When I say he had it all, he real­ly had it all. 

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JW Ander­son Spring 2023 Ready-to-wear

CHRISTOPHER KANE

This sea­son Christo­pher Kane has giv­en us a chic anato­my les­son. From the forensic
sound­track, anatom­i­cal prints of the body parts to vinyl struc­tures resem­bling the ribs, it was
a play­ful body of work bal­anced with pas­tels, flow­ers, cup­cake shaped dress­es and lace
detail­ing. See-through vinyl details were seen through­out the entire col­lec­tion giv­ing it a
sharp and sexy edge next to the soft colours and fab­rics of the rest of the gar­ments. Kane’s
play with unusu­al fab­rics have paid off again in this sweet and fem­i­nine, yet high­ly sharp
and sex­u­al SS23 collection. 

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Christo­pher Kane Spring 2023 Ready-to-wear

S.S. DALEY

S.S. Daley has tak­en us to the Eng­lish coun­try­side for his SS23 col­lec­tion. But first, an impor­tant men­tion of the diver­si­ty on his run­way. Whilst many design­ers have start­ed includ­ing mod­els of wider mea­sure­ments in their wom­enswear col­lec­tions, S.S. Daley is one of the first to do that in menswear and we love to see it.
The love let­ters between Vita Sackville West and Vio­let Tre­fu­sis were the inspi­ra­tion of S.S Daley SS23 col­lec­tion. Their code­word for love — rab­bit, was a major state­ment through­out. Mod­els wear­ing the bun­ny ears and the prints of the rab­bits have appeared on the run­way togeth­er with the coun­try­side sta­ple — botan­i­cal prints. In addi­tion, very clas­sic shapes have dom­i­nat­ed the col­lec­tion includ­ing cardi­gans, blaz­ers and pleat­ed trousers mak­ing it an over­all fas­ci­nat­ing look into a for­bid­den upper class love story.

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S.S Daley Spring 2023 Ready-to-wear

NENSI DOJAKA

Yet anoth­er del­i­cate­ly detailed Nen­si Dojaka’s col­lec­tion appeared dur­ing Lon­don Fashion
Week. Her sig­na­ture chif­fon dress­es and strap­py bralettes have mes­merised the run­way. This
sea­son she has also includ­ed cut out heart-shaped details, lace and shim­mery fabrics.
Two-tone jeans were also a new addi­tion for Doja­ka, paired with an over­sized blaz­er or a silver
top. The design­er has closed the show with three sim­i­lar strik­ing long see-through gowns in
beige, black and bur­gundy. A very fem­i­nine yet pow­er­ful SS23 collection. 

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Nen­si Doja­ka Spring 2023 Ready-to-wear

ERDEM

Corsets, flo­rals and tulle have dom­i­nat­ed the Erdem’s Spring/Summer23 col­lec­tion. Always roman­tic yet con­tem­po­rary pieces includ­ed var­i­ous tex­tures, shapes and even raw hems. Soft fab­rics and sharp details have cre­at­ed the per­fect bal­ance for the eye. All of the col­lec­tion was paired with black flat shoes giv­ing the edgi­ness to the over­all look. The col­lec­tion was fin­ished with three black and white gowns cov­ered in long back veil, as a trib­ute to the Queen. 

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Erdem Spring 2023 Ready-to-wear