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London Fashion Week SS18: Richard Malone

Lauretta Roberts
15 September 2017

London Fashion Week, the 66th edition of which kicked off in the capital today, has a global reputation as a hotbed of new talent so it was perhaps fitting that proceedings got underway with a member of the current crop of NEWGEN emerging designers, Richard Malone. And even more fitting that he should choose "Rebellion" as his theme, since London has always been the most out there of the big four fashion weeks.

Malone, who graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2014, presented a collection that in his own words celebrated "weird contrasts", which stemmed from his two main sources of inspiration - the showgirls of the 1930s and 1940s and photos of rubbish on the street taken using his iPhone.

This improbable combination was brought to life in a "supermarket" colour palette of blue, yellow and green (indeed there was something of a shredded Tesco carrier bag feel to the final dress of the show, but that didn't stop it from being one of the most impressive pieces of the collection, the movement achieved by the shredded skirt was beautiful).

Malone insisted the outfits were not glamour and the aesthetic most definitely not modern and yet in purposefully eschewing both qualities he managed to achieve them perfectly. The dresses, in particular, were indeed highly glamorous, not in a conventional 90s Versace way, but in a more 20-teens Millennial way.

The bright lime draped mini dress, a split to the thigh aqua and bright blue long dress and banana yellow sleeved midi dressed, cut to reveal one leg, all felt like the kind of thing a modern-day Insta influencer would choose for a red carpet event.

Bright shorts suits and culottes suits had a slightly utilitarian feel and provided solid daywear options and much attention is bound to be paid to the footwear. Each looked was paired with Malone's interpretation of this season's ubiquitous sock boot, which came in a variety of lengths from mid-calf to mid-thigh and all featuring circular cut outs and that Tesco blue stripe.

Worth noting too that while the colours looked brash and artificial, they were achieved by Malone working with a community of women in the South of India who hand-weave fabrics and work with natural dyes using processes which require minimal energy and water. One of fashion week's longest serving veteran's Dame Vivienne Westwood, who helped launch a British Fashion Council and Mayor of London-backed green initiative on day one of the event, would surely approve of that...

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