The 13 best shows at London Fashion Week - and the new trends to know

“I’ve never been so excited to get to work” says Victoria Beckham

Instead of 40 models, she had four – on film. Instead of a stage, she made do with two rails of clothes. The 600-plus audience, with its celebrity front row? Reduced to four fashion editors at a time. “There were definitely challenges designing this, because the Italian factories were closed for some of that time. But I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited to go to work,” says Beckham.

Her dresses came in black or lemon silk or jersey, trimmed in lace. The blazers were ivory, as part of a three-piece trouser suit that managed to convey tracksuit ease with Studio 54 glamour, in a shade of hollandaise (colours have been influenced by her husband’s newfound love of cooking). Then there’s a down jacket and longer waistcoat in a can’t-miss-it leopard print. “I’m calling this petrol pump chic.” LA

“I’m not launching track pants” says Erdem Moralıoğlu

This is one of Erdem’s loveliest and most subtle collections, inspired by Susan Sontag’s 1992 novel, The Volcano Lover. Empire lines, muslins, 18th-century brocades, military bows, cropped Spencer jackets all feature along with languid pearl jewellery and a pearl- encrusted trouser suit, each sewn on by hand.

“I can’t tell you the number of journalists who’ve asked whether I’m launching track pants,” he remarked wryly. The answer is a resounding no, but he has relaxed. There is also, for the first time, denim. Albeit in ivory. “Of course I thought about practicalities,” he says. “But life will resume, and when it does, we’ll be here with beautiful clothes.” LA

“No more newness for newness’s sake” says Alice Temperley

Alice Temperley has had a busy few months restructuring and relocating her business – to Somerset.

The designer spent months wearing overalls while she sanded floors, so she knows about casual dressing. While she has resisted designing jogging pants (“I have a thing about them”), she has launched lounge and sleepwear and is branching into homeware, using offcuts of fabrics from her archives.

Like many of her peers, 2020 gave her the opportunity to step back and think. She’s cutting the number of collections she produces a year by half, to two, and drilling down on the fluid dress shapes, Seventies trouser suits and decorative blouses that have always been popular in her lines.

“It doesn’t matter if it was designed five years ago. If it works, it works. And customers love it. It makes sense to re-do it in different fabrics and keep tweaking rather than newness for newness’s sake”. LA

“I was translating escapism into embroideries” says Simone Rocha

We’ve heard countless eulogies to the handbag since mid-March, but at Simone Rocha’s presentation, the handbags were the pearls. Literally. Blown up into ostrich-egg-sized minaudiéres, they came suspended from wrists, slung across torsos and suspended in (pearl) net holsters.

There were no pyjamas here. With its embroidered organza coats, pearl-traced neck- and bustlines and knotted satin gowns, the whole collection could be interpreted as a rejection of lockdown slobbery.

Where it met the moment was in its wistful spirit. In her show notes, Rocha mentioned “hand-embroidered castles from faraway places” – you have to wonder which retreats she had in mind. EC

“Rather than panicking, I painted” says Christopher Kane

Anyone who baked sourdough over lockdown might relate to Christopher Kane, who took up a paintbrush again after 14 years.

More than 200 glitter-splattered portraits came out of his garden shed-turned-studio; some abstract, some portraits (of his sister, nieces, and colourful “brats”). It wasn’t until three weeks ago that Kane had the idea to use the art as a basis for a spring collection.

“I thought, I’ve done all this art, is that vain?” he explains. “It’s emotional, it’s personal, why not?”

Some paintings are translated onto Tyvek fabric and others have been cut into dresses with squared-off shoulders.

“I started because I was just demented with the panic we were all in,” Kane says. “I thought I need to get this out. You don’t often get time out – it felt like being back in college. Now my shed is filled with glitter.” CL

“I was working on something sombre, then I realised that’s not what I want to see” says Molly Goddard

There is no young designer who’s done more to make fashion exuberant, relaxed and fun than Molly Goddard – she’s gained cult status as the designer of Killing Eve’s bubblegum pink killer frock. But even she wasn’t immune to feeling glum this spring as she began working on a simple collection.

Thankfully, she changed her mind. “Colour has affected my mood throughout the whole thing; if I washed my hair and put on a dress, I’d always have a much better day… I wanted to do colour and texture, make smock dresses, not worry about what I should be doing,” she told me, surrounded by a ruffled grass-green skirts, checkerboard hoodies and buttercup tulle explosions. BH

“Make an effort, please” says Duro Olowu

You’d struggle to find anything as uplifting and celebratory to wear next spring as a dress from Duro Olowu’s new collection. The designer was inspired by the pioneering African- American artist and activist Emma Amos, who died in May. Her colour-rich figurative scenes, the designer said, “offered a powerful use of vivid colour and texture… and challenged racism, sexism and social inequality”. In Olowu’s hands, they became hand-painted striped prints and spliced collages of prints on contrasting hues.

Highlights included the mauve silk satin co-ord, the Fifties sundresses, the shin-hitting skirts (his client Michelle Obama might like one of those for her next appearance), and the palm tree embroidered white organza midi dress – perhaps one for a bride choosing to elope rather than play congregation-size roulette with the Government rule book? CL

“People have still been entertaining at home over lockdown” says Emilia Wickstead

Even if Armageddon were afoot, Emilia Wickstead would still be there, creating ultra elegant collections for those who glide swanlike over stormy waters. Her offering was a sophisticated salve, with everything created with dressing up and down in mind; the floor-sweeping gala lengths of yore now hitting mid-shin (more rule-of-six dinner party than red carpet ready), crafted in cotton than anything more high maintenance.

Her collection was laced with personal touches; the New Zealand-born designer had been looking at Faery Lands of the South Seas, one of her daughter’s books; the result was uplifting sailboat prints. She asked Ruth Chapman, the super chic silver-haired founder of Matchesfashion.com and the first person to buy Emilia’s design 10 years ago, to model, too. The final touch in Wickstead’s guide to stylish seclusion? Nightwear and table linens, plus a collaboration of exquisite South Sea pearl jewellery with Jessica McCormack. BH

“The kids pinned little bits of fabric on to it and we thought, ‘Oh my god, that makes it so much more beautiful’ ” says Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi of Preen by Thornton Bregazzi

When confronted with the challenges that plagued every working parent over lockdown, Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi of Preen came up with an ingenious solution: put the kids to work. They handed Fauve, 11, and Blythe, 8, a book they found in the garage of their Suffolk home (The Woman Who Did) and directed the girls to paste inspiration materials into its pages.

Then Thornton, scrolling through Saatchi Gallery’s Instagram feed, found a glass jar containing shattered pieces of a blue and white vessel. Its title: In Pieces but Holding It Together, “I thought, that’s me!” Thornton said.

They brought the girls to the studio, and “to keep them off TikTok, we would give them a mannequin and let them pin things on,” Bregazzi said. One of Fauve’s projects grew into a dress. The rest is “core Preen”: velvet devoré dresses, quilted satin bed jackets and ruffled, patchworked slips, all from fabric they had in the studio – a stylish and sustainable family affair. EC

“It’s a celebration of the women on the front line, and for anyone it may inspire and uplift” says Michael Halpern

Who needs models when you can call on key workers? Michael Halpern, king of the disco-ball party dress, enlisted train operators, nurses and cleaners for his spring-summer ’21 collection. The designer spent lockdown cycling between his Chelsea studio and the Royal Brompton Hospital workroom where volunteers produced 70,000 surgical gowns for ICU wards. Eventually the two worlds – one producing vital PPE, the other £2,500 cocktail dresses – began to seem not so far apart. He put volunteer coordinator Caroline in sequinned party pyjamas; Arianna, a senior staff nurse, got a crystal plissé dress, with Halpern hand-stitching every pleat. “To be able to slow down, work on the collection and focus on the creative side… it was a gift.” EC

“We wanted to share the glitz and glamour of the fashion industry with our families” says Levi Palmer of Palmer//Harding

“The entire Covid experience has made us and everyone reflect on the people they love and how they can strengthen those relationships further,” says Levi Palmer, one half of the modern shirting label Palmer//Harding.

For LFW, Palmer and his partner Matthew Harding added some new pieces to their winter collection and photographed it on family and friends; there’s Harding’s grandmother Jean looking fabulous in a striped navy skirt and shirt, her fuchsia manicure popping out; his mother Suzanne does the gardening in an asymmetric white shirt (gloves, model’s own). Palmer’s family in the US took part via Zoom; his mother Nancy offers autumn-style inspiration in a blue shirt and high-shine, high-waisted skirt while “fashion fairy godmother” Jan Strimple, a Texan powerhouse, drapes over sculptures in dramatic shirtdresses.

“Having our family as models felt right because it was a shared experience we could all find joy and excitement in during these traumatic times,” Palmer says. BH

“A cobalt sparkly dress – what else do you need when you’re stuck at home?” says Lucinda Chambers and Molly Molloy of Colville

“If someone said you’ll have to design a collection without feeling any of the fabrics or seeing your design partner in real life…” says Lucinda Chambers, the London half of Colville. Her collaborator , Molly Molloy, lives in Milan, where lockdown was so draconian people were only allowed to leave home for short food shopping trips. By slowing down and producing less they’ve come up with another upbeat collection that includes upcycled track pants (no two pairs are the same), sparkly bias-cut dresses, floor-grazing ponchos, tango shoes and some exclusive fabrics they’ve developed themselves. “We design what we want to wear – and that includes a hurricane of colour.” LA

“We produced a more focused and considered collection” says Eudon Choi

Imagine yourself lounging on a sun-drenched terrace in the Mediterranean. Eudon Choi is optimistic that holidays will be back next summer, and his collection of white linen dresses and terracotta separates would be ideal.

Choi is a realist, meaning every item in his collection (56 pieces as opposed to the usual 120) has to count.

“I have been wanting to produce a smaller collection for a while,” he says, “but it is very difficult to do when you do a catwalk show. I’m enjoying the change of scale.” CL

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