September 20, 2022 |
Talk about a second coming. Christopher Kane is back. After a three-year catwalk hiatus one of London Fashion Week’s big beasts roared into the spotlight. Held at the vast Roundhouse venue in Camden, it was one of the buzziest shows of the week. The designer, now fully in charge of his own brand after dissolving his Kering partnership, was eager to show off his latest Kane-isms.
He’s always been obsessed with the human body – it’s anatomy, science and sexuality. That obsession found expression In little pastel negligee skirts, slit to the hip, which spoke of classic boudoir glamour. These are the kind of things you could imagine Madame Cyn (Cynthia Payne, the notorious sixties Madame) wearing for one of her special evenings.
Anatomical drawings of muscles which appeared as full-body prints or, unnervingly, as arms (ligaments and all) wrapped around the waist as a belt, had a more visceral sense of grit.
He’s long stood for shame-free self expression, which feeds into his kinky obsession with odd couplings. Soft Scottish cashmere and shiny plastic shouldn’t go together but in Kaneland these opposites attract. Elsewhere the designer scalpeled away the midriffs of lacy lingerie dresses, replacing them with sheer, plastic ‘ribcage’ bondage straps. Vivid florals are another Kane favourite, a symbol, he said of love and death. We observed a minutes silence at the beginning of the show, in memory of The Queen, but there was nothing quiet about this show. It was full throttle Kane. Back with a vengeance.
Photography courtesy of Christopher Kane.
