A few questions I have for J. JS Lee: a) why is she always first in the London Fashion Week schedule? b) does she take into account the bleary-eyed, pre-caffeinated rows of guests just a little bit when she’s putting her collections together? I reckon she does and this season certainly felt fresh - fresh enough to shake the jetlag out of you. Opening with cream, grey and white there were sharp-edged, sporty tunics and open back padded tops. Slip-on trainers were topped with a froth of white shearling and super long-sleeved white knitted jumpers added a balance of softness to an otherwise slick collection. The monochrome eventually gave way as hints of primary colours snuck in, then yellow and pink printed silk and finally swathes of pink shearling. It’s the first time we’ve seen shearling on Lee’s runway and it seemed perhaps a little unnecessary.
The penultimate look, a baby pink shearling mini dress was certainly arresting but lacked the definition or distinction of some other styles. Given the abundance of shearling on the runways (and on everyone) I’m not convinced we need any more. The standout detail was, instead, a wide, loose elastic stitch detail weaving its way across tops and dresses, pressing the otherwise flat fabric into loose pleats. One black ankle-grazing dress was gathered with white elastic snaked across one hip and slit up the back, it was grown up, powerful and sexy. Let’s have more of that this week.
