FASHION & STYLE: THE MANY FACES OF FALL’S VELVET TREND
Perhaps it’s fitting that the birthplace of Victorian aesthetics has been the showcase for so much of the era’s favorite fabric on the runway. It’s official: designers at London Fashion Week are bringing velvet back for fall.
Christopher Kane took an artistic approach to the material, re-imagining its heavy, decadent associations in sophisticated mod jumpers applied with female-bust cutouts. The designer showed the fabric’s impressive versatility in a couple looks featuring bold crocodile prints and sleek pantsuits with lapels that appeared to unravel across the blazer.
The Edwardian silhouettes at Simone Rocha, however, referenced the opulent drawing rooms in which velvet had its heyday. Leg of mutton sleeves and regal cloaks stuck to a mostly mourning palette — a.k.a. black.
Black seemed almost forbidden at Toga, where velvet was offered in a rainbow of chic. Of particular note was a hot-pink overcoat that will set the street style sidewalks ablaze come October.
Image via Toga/Thumbnail via Christopher Kane