Kinder Aggugini loves a bad girl - alas, his problem is how to align that to the fashion he creates. His is a decidedly refined aesthetic - if you want to tag it as rebellious, the best we can do is pony-club punk. For every studded leather jacket Aggugini creates, there's a flirty, flippy floral festooned skirt (or three) to address the balance. This season he made a wise choice. Rather than trying to temper his urge to create floaty, feminine frippery to his wish to dress the cooler, badder girls behind the bike-sheds, Aggugini let both of them run riot. That actually smacked of true rebellion, and in that respect, he's chiming with the greater number of London designers this season who are seeking the anarchy in sweetness.
For spring 2012, Aggugini looked at the rebels of a finishing school - refined young ladies going a little bit haywire in their coming-out gowns. Stephen Jones certainly plucked his inspiration from there, balancing books on the wayward models' heads as if, whilst practising deportment, these debutantes had suddenly run amock.
The dresses beneath veered more towards the sweet than the sharp though. And considering Aggugini is designing for spring, that was a great decision. His filmy silk gowns were speckled with floral prints, some even embroidered with real rose petals into delicate herbaceous borders running across fluid A-line skirts. Set against black, the sugared-almond shades of violet, cerise and ivory shone. A few came weighted with silver studs, adding a weight to the hem of a flaring chiffon dirndl for example, playing a mix-and-match game with studded leather jackets. The best moment came when the two were fused as one, a floral pattern bleached out of a silk that was chopped into an elongated Perfecto as cocktail dress. Sweet and sharp, all at the same time.
