Since the London collections have been all about slicing and slashing, translucent layering, florals, and rich embellishment, you could say Michael van der Ham was in his element this season. He’d taken out a rather intimate gilded salon at Café Royal and with a stripped-down coronation piece by Händel playing as guests walked in, the scene was set for a majestic experience. Van der Ham stuck to his trademark piecing together of materials, but employed asymmetrical layering to provoke the idea that fabrics were wrapped in one another, using contrasting materials together such as a block colour fabric and a print fabric.
There was a mature primness to the collection, even if some skirts were bordering on the skimpy, simply for the fact that the intricacy and heaviness of van der Ham’s textiles – some of which are so textured they’re practically 3D – don’t have a particularly youthful air about them. It wasn’t majestic, but when it comes to the elaborate, couture-like work with textiles and ornamentation that everyone else is trying their hand at, van der Ham certainly knows what he’s doing.
