London Fashion Week part 2

I love a trilogy. There is something about things in 3 that feels complete. Hence my predilection for three part(ers) when posting.

After the hat encounter, the lobby of Vauxhall Fashion Scout became host to a short black and white film. 'Undertone' the collection by Theatre De La Mode is described in the press release as 'avant-garde cuts, from softly tailored shirts to over-sized sleeve details, are translated into a melange of combined structured and lightweight fabrics in individual garments, merging cotton jersey in medium and light weights, Pique jersey, cotton twill jacketing...blah (that's me in case you are asleep) .....colours consist of monochrome base palette of navy, grey, sand and white with highlights in petrol grey and magenta (I'd say fuchsia pink as its a bit brighter than magenta but moving towards that spectrum of pink!).

the TDLM samples rails

I'd written .. 'simple constructed edgy preppy wear' and when I spoke to Chris one half of TDLM he didn't disagree. The other half of TDLM is Sara who is Scandinavian and I failed to get which country, but her surname is Flamm if that pinpoints where. Both designers were incredibly lovely and fresh. Chris explained he was very inspired by Poiret (Paul Poiret). I refrained from saying Poiret was the design genius that failed to pay attention to detail and commercial matters.

In fact so unconcerned was Poiret with the construction process, even he felt his clothes were beautiful from afar. Chanel was the masterful commercial genius, noting workmanship was critical to sales and steering garments to sleekness rather than draping. Poiret was groundbreaking with his deconstruction of clothes away from corsetry to draping, harem pants are credited to him. The remaining dispute of the day being, did Poiret or Chanel create the LBD. Certainly Poiret was first with a 'branding' detail of a signature rose as a motif on his clothing. Yet it is Chanel's camilla that remains


One could also cite his use of colour and his ground breaking kimono coats; which made an appearance in a diffused way in Marc Jacobs S/S 09 show last week in NY. The fact remains Paul Poiret was the first designer to launch a fragrance - so to be inspired by his genius is no mean thing. Except...I'd draw comparisons with TDLM's S/S 09 collection more firmly with Chanel. It was the sporty vibe and the uniformity of the look which reminded me of her wonderful translation of the Duke of Westminster's boat crew for women. The styling of model's in the short film lent an air of a tennis afternoon conjuring up The Great Gatsby or Just William depending on your view. It was fresh and the setting of the film failed to evoke the understated glamour of the clothes.



This duo have a lot to offer, they need a stylist (cough, cough) and to sort out their press releases. I won't overly bore you with the releases final sentence that included thus in its construction. If Chris and Sara grasps the commercial nettle of Chanel ( which KL embodies today even though Coco might not care for some of his designs) and still include the Poiret inspiration - they might be a theatre company worth some note.