The inspiration behind Sibling’s AW17 collection? Babs Windsor. Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration on our part, but we’re not totally off the mark, because her name was, in fact, listed on the press release. She’s an Eastender, and this show was all about London. And, as Londoners, it made our (only just slightly less ample than Babs’) bosoms swell with pride – because it spoke of the mishmash of life in our fair city, or as Sibling dubbed it, the “mental mosaic” – from cockney pearly kings and queens, to Babs, to Jamaican reggae and even a touch of Elizabethan, through those amazing ruffled knits. Or was that Lady Di? She also also wound up on the press release – this was a collection “fit for all Windsors”, apparently. Think: baker-boy hats, a clash of coloured animal prints, double-breasted suiting and obviously a tonne of amazing knitwear. It was all brought together by the eye of fellow wildly talented Londoner, the legendary Judy Blame, who styled the show. To return to the press release, because, well, what says it more succinctly than that – at heart this was a collection all about Blame’s eternal inspirations: “London’s Pearly Kings and Queens, a King’s Road at Jubilee take on the red, white and blue and the tough, and not so tough boys of East London, this Old Man via Scratch Himself.” Laaaavly.
Photographs by Jason Lloyd-Evans
