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There’s been a lot of talk recently about what fashion week is for. It can be to show the press and buyers what to expect next season. It can be for the benefit of consumers, to sell clothes right off the runway. If you’re a young designer, it can be to get your name out there. But if you are Anya Hindmarch, then surely it’s to dazzle.
The British accessories designer, who now designs womenswear too, is known for her impressive sets – she once showed models, on a vast conveyer belt done up to resemble a barcode, pushing her handbags in shopping trolleys.
But today she surpassed herself.
The stage was a giant white circle curled in on itself, and the first girl – in a coral red neoprene bell dress carrying a red top handle bag – wound her way into its centre before the whole structure seamlessly shifted and reformed, opening up into a staircase from which the rest of the models emerged.
As the bags and clothes changed colour, so did an enormous disc above our heads, in an effect that brought to mind 1960s visions of the Space Age. God knows what it must have cost, but it was a wonder to behold, and painted an unforgettable visual picture. We’ll be dreaming of those bags tonight.
Outside the show, as the paparazzi scrambled to photograph the street style posers, and the big black London Fashion Week cars carrying VIPs formed gridlock, a bloke driving a white van leant out his window and shouted, “All this fuss for a few frocks?” A few handbags, pool slides and neoprene coats in this case, but boy was it worth it.
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