WOMEN COLLECTIONS A/W 2018.19

grow everywhere. They disorientate and unsettle. They take over the London runway, invading the spaces. They conquer the clothes and the fabrics. They mould the shapes. They hide and conceal. They darken and obscure. They produce a material eclipse. They speak the language of absence, evoking the passage of time, the cycles of sleep and wakefulness. This is the . Oblivion. and . Gareth Pugh’s muses are inhabitants of the night: feline, plutonic and provocative. Heroines dressed in , , and fur. Protected by . They beckon and wound with their , dark . Languid. Intriguing. Seductive. Christopher Kane’s women reveal and hide, showing glimpses of flesh, wearing , and then cover up in thick, dark   covered in shine like comet tails, on a chilly night. This is the season of dusk, . The time for winter. Roland Mouret forges and corduroy in saturated colours, bordeaux and anthracite, for double-breasted jackets, and . A femininity that is evanescent and leaden, covered with fringed . Adding . At the end of the day, it is time for mourning. The lament of every glimmer. Chalayan lays a veil over the body. He dresses women in black, like widows of intact purity, . Understated, uncontaminated. Raven-black fabrics against diaphanous, milky, alabaster skin. The fashion show is an experience of shadows and light. Of vespers and morning light. The night slowly giving way to the dawn. The colours of the new day are glimpsed. Mary Katrantzou turns on the first lights. Her creations are sweet reverberations, dresses, with luminescent reflections. Velvet and embroidery intermingle in a symphony of darkness and radiance. The dawn rises with Delpozo. Fresh and fragile with a light breeze. It has the and frost, a mild climate in nuances of vanilla and fleur-de-lis. open, awaken. Winter meets the early sun and is warmed by it. The minutes pass, like notes of colour, like and shoots. The grace of passing time, the beauty of traditions. Tea at five o’clock, a garden party. This is the philosophy of Mulberry, which draws up an ode to English rituals, amongst , , , , and compositions. It is the Burberry rain, crossing air and land, sun and storm, freezing temperatures. Christopher Bailey composes rainbows, follows the showers and changing skies, introducing the night after every sunset like a veil of over a multi-coloured dress. This is the circular nature of events, the ceremony of the day, the fascination with the Earth’s rotation, the twenty-four-hour dance, the return of the evening. Of the night. And the shadows.