The newest installment of London Fashion Week took place between 4-6 January 2020. During the event, British designers showcased their autumn-winter 2020 collections. The 15th season of the Men’s edition of LFW kick-started the series of men’s fashion events and is followed by Pitti Uomo, Milan and then Paris Fashion Week.
The event hosted presentations and runway shows by some household names such as Hackett which is almost always on our good list and from some amazing household designers. However, the main focus of this January’s London Fashion Week seemed to be the up and coming and the more unknown designers and they are the ones we need to talk about.
The collections which were presented were autumn-winter collections. Following the event, one cannot help but notice a bit of a contradiction in what is going in terms of aesthetics and trends. Most designers offer statements in which they claim to be focusing on timeless creations with strong political impact and not on trends. However, looking from afar, one cannot observe that there are very clear trends present at the fashion week. The ideas of gender fluidity, “social justice” and repurposing clothes were almost obsessively repetitive. Also, focusing on the Southern Hemisphere was also a big trend (we have been writing about this trend for about 4 years now). In terms of pure aesthetics, we could clearly see a strong focus on oversized, sack-like pieces with little to no structure. Moreover, nihilism and anti-fashion were at home. In conclusion, it can’t be said that there are no trends, it’s just that these are not the trends that were present 10 years ago. Also, in terms of trends, while there was a strong political perspective, this was, as usually, only one-sided.
Generally, the clothes proposed by designers for the autumn-winter 2020 season were part of more broader, general trends which have shaped the world of fashion for the last 5 years and which are now starting to dim down, but it will take long until they will change. Most of the brands and designers that showcased will probably be extinct in terms of relevance in a few years’ time.
While it is hard to describe these works as art or even as fashion or simply as clothes (in the end, fashion is the art of clothing), they are telling of the times and thus, quite relevant.
Firstly, it is clear that these fashions are a reflection of the time: depressed, colorless, shapeless and unfortunately, mostly pointless. These trends, as well as the ideas they reflect are pushed very hard and yet have little to no influence in society. Except for their peers, people don’t care. A Fashion Week should be an inspirational event: creative designers should showcase in a “fashion capital” as London, who is always calling itself a cosmopolitan city and spread their creations and vision around the world. The aesthetics should make people create ideals and should have an influence on the way people dress in the world. And yet, you don’t see many crop tops on men in Athens, despite the heat, no gender-fluid clothes on men in China, Korea or Japan, no patched jumpsuits made from old scraps on men in Dubai. Surely, there are exceptions, but when was the last time you heard a man aspire to have an untoned body with no muscle mass and to look as if he’s about to faint? That’s not the trend in Egypt, it’s not “the thing” among Mexicans and not something many Russians aspire to. There aren’t many men neither in Greenland nor in Cyprus who want to look like a clown version of Prince. OK, enough, you get the idea.
What these so-called “statement clothes” also show is the fact that craftsmanship has been severely lost among designers. Trend forecaster Lidewij Edelkoort has been speaking about this for a few years now, namely that many people who claim to make clothes these days don’t really have a knowledge of clothes making – they just wing it with a glue gun. In fact, many of the clothes we see today on the runways of the world are extremely infantile: both in craft and in concept. The fact that many people who don’t really have enough talent or skill are pushed to the front makes this phenomenon highly visible.
To conclude, it can be argued that London Fashion Week Men autumn-winter 2020 is a part of the zeitgeist and a reflection of it. As things will change, so will fashion.
Fraquoh and Franchomme
P.S. We want to hear from you! What do you make of today’s runway scene? Which men’s fashion event is your favorite? Why? Share your feedback, questions or thoughts in the comments below! For more articles on style, fashion tips and cultural insights, you can subscribe to Attire Club via e-mail or follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram!