London Fashion Week 2015 Trends: The Psychedelic '70s

London Fashion Week has gone digital. With a front row made up of fashion bloggers and editors, heads buried in their phones as they frantically post each outfit to social media, and a digital portal for home viewers to live stream the shows, Fashion Week has truly entered the 21^st century.

  But even in spite of this, there was nostalgia in the air, with designers Roksanda Illincic and Jonathan Saunders drawing inspiration from the psychedelic ’70s.

  At Roksanda, the self-styled label of Illincic, coloured fur made a comeback, appearing on clutch purses and coats. Models wore a range of deliriously colourful outfits, each showing variations on a theme of waved lines, shapes and curves. Gently swaying fabrics blurred even the brightest of colour clashes, and in doing so provided a gentle, playful look. Models were made up to appear wan and washed out, with burgundy lips protruding from amidst the pallor. The contrast between subdued make up and chaotically colourful clothes helped to update the collection, providing a modern, more sophisticated and elegant take on the ’70s look.

  Over at Jonathan Saunders, the ’70s motif appeared on bright, wave-patterned dresses and coats. Polo necks, a big trend for a/w ’15, further emphasised the 1970s look. Other looks featured racing stripe designs, printed onto swinging silks, accompanied by knee high boots and dangling silver earrings. Again, the palette clashed, Saunders favouring lavender purple, reds, and neon pinks. Showing shorter clothes, with dresses cut to follow the a-line, Saunders’s collection was sharper, somehow snappier than the clothes at Roksanda, which played to the kookier side of the psychedelic trend.

  In our increasingly technical world, one of focus, clarity and hyper precision, it is somehow refreshing to see clothes and colours that softly swing and blur. The lack of definition relating to shape and pattern was a soft reminder of the lessons we can learn from a more romantic phase in human history, one that both Roksanda and Jonathan Saunders have learned from, and adapted well. 
by Sarah Hand
images via http://www.londonfashionweek.co.uk/