Fashion Wire Daily London - Russia has been quite a theme this London Fashion Week, and a safe one at that. The arctic cold weather has prompted the grand dames of British fashion, notably The Daily Telegraph's Hilary Alexander, to dress like extras from "Doctor Zhivago" in huge fur hats and coats. On the runways, the groovesters at Blaak presented a collection partly inspired by Moscow yesterday, and identical Russian twins Natasha and Tamara Surguladze (who bear a striking resemblance to British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman) showed their label Tata-Naka. Then, Sir Paul Smith Wednesday revealed that a three pit-stop journey last year -- from St. Petersburg to Moscow with a final stop in New York, where the MOMA was holding an exhibition on Russian Constructivist art -- inspired his latest collection.
Presented on a swooping black-and-white-striped runway in an unheated old dairy near the BBC's headquarters in West London, Smith's was an upbeat, colorful, and optimistic collection, which was exactly the designer's intention. "We need optimism now, and as a fashion designer I think I can provide that," he told FWD.
The collection worked through knee-length chiffon dresses with egg-shaped blocks of custard yellow and pink stripes. Bright pink and custard yellow cardigans were paired with jumbo cords, or super-slim button-fronted pencil skirts.
It also took on the blocky patchworks of Constructivist art and applied it to coats, capes, kimono tunic dresses and jackets, first in pale shades and then in increasingly bold color. Other prints, all of which are done in-house, had the feel of Sonia Delaunay and Eileen Gray.
The coats were Russian army style: belted, long and with the collars flicked high. One came in fierce black leather, another in tan cashmere with orange frogging.
There was also a series of kid leather pieces: a full-length cheongsam was embroidered with Japanese cherry blossoms. A leather bomber was hand-embroidered with "Our first lessons together were pretty good ones. Remember?" This is apparently a line of Constructivist poetry.
The collection also included a series of pretty Gosford Park-inspired 1920s silk gowns and camisoles in deep purple or black.
Overall this collection was a winner. Sir Paul Smith is Britain's most commercially successful designer for good reason.
