London Frieze Fashion Week featuring Alexander McQueen, Raf Simons, and ROKSANDA
By Paige Shea
Following the death of Queen Elizabeth, many household designers chose to postpone their London Fashion Week Shows to coincide with the contemporary art festival “Celebration of London Fashion Week” put on by the British Fashion Council.
Frieze, founded in 2003 by Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotver, takes place every October at Regent Park in London. This year, the festival was showcased from October 12th-16th. Celebrated globally, places like Seoul and Los Angeles also put on the festival at different times of the year.
The headlining events were from designers Alexander McQueen, Raf Simons, and ROKSANDA; the latter two designers were originally scheduled for London Fashion Week that ran from September 16th-20th, but were postponed due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
All the runway pieces seen from McQueen, Simons, and ROKSANDA beautifully encapsulated the contemporary focus of the Frieze festival.
Sarah Burton, creative director of the fashion house Alexander McQueen, chose the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, London as the setting of McQueen’s spring 2023 ready-to-wear collection. The show took place in a large, inflatable bubble located in the middle of the 17th century landmark, blending contemporary fashion seamlessly with the antiquity and history of the setting.
Burton’s collection, titled “First Sight,” focused on the human eye.
“The eye is the most unique symbol of humanity—each one is like a fingerprint; each one is completely individual,” Burton told Vogue. “It’s sort of about seeing things again,” she said. “Not walking around with your eyes shut, your eyes down. Just seeing each other, recognizing each other’s humanity. Caring about each other.”
“First Sight” featured a contemporary twist on classic designs: tuxedos, blazers, trench coats, and pantsuits were sharply tailored to create clean, geometric, eye-catching lines. Low-cut trousers featured with cropped blazers were a revival of Alexander McQueen’s “bumsters,” a nod to the original designs of the late fashion designer.
The eye motif was recurrent throughout the collection and was in conjunction with the laser-sharp cuts, printed onto the focal points of asymmetrical dresses, pantsuits, and jumpsuits. As a result, the pieces shown provided a cohesive, yet highly inventive new collection.
Raf Simons — former creative director of Jil Sander, Christian Dior, Calvin Klein and current co-creative director of Prada and founder of his eponymous brand Raf Simons — showed his Spring/Summer 2023 collection for Raf Simons on October 13th; a runway show postponed from London Fashion Week.
Coming off Prada’s simultaneously futuristic, goth, and business chic collection that showcased Simons’ innovation at Milan Fashion Week SS23 in September, Simons’ new collection representing his own label was highly anticipated.
His collection, titled “Corps, Coda,” took inspiration from ballet. The runway took place in a former industrial printing plant in southeast London, the backdrop featuring a floor-to-ceiling screen with a video of a single dancer in Simons’ clothing.
The collection featured a diverse array of 80’s-inspired neon color palettes, mesh clothing, ballet-like leggings and tights, and romper suits. “Corps, Coda” also featured oversized, leather jackets and a recurring theme of a layered, slightly undone look.
The scribbled designs on many of the shirts from the collection, raw hems, and contrasting textiles marks a departure from the fashion house’s signature perfected look in an innovative, yet highly-wearable new collection from Simons.
Roksanda Ilinčić, Serbian fashion designer and creator of the luxury fashion brand ROKSANDA, also postponed her LFW runway show due to Queen Elizabeth’s death.
Ilinčić’s Frieze runway took place at the Serpentine Gallery in London’s Hyde Park where she has historically shown her runway collections for several seasons. She chose Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates’s “Black Chapel,” a circular black building with an oculus, as her backdrop for the show.
ROKSANDA, known for its bold colors, theatrical silhouettes and use of the rose as a recurrent motif, certainly followed its core aesthetic with even more voluminous silhouettes and the use of black for designs throughout the pieces. Additionally, the art of Pipilotti Rist, a longtime inspiration of Ilinčić, influenced the bold patterns of the ROKSANDA SS23 collection.
The dramatic tailoring of ROKSANDA’s pieces created a sculptural experience in conjunction with more feminine aspects: long trains, hats and ribbons. The collection also featured many different fabrics and patterns that all blended together into one harmonious look – a product of Ilinčić’s talent for show-stopping, contemporary looks.
Frieze, founded in 2003 by Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotver, takes place every October at Regent Park in London. This year, the festival was showcased from October 12th-16th. Celebrated globally, places like Seoul and Los Angeles also put on the festival at different times of the year.
The headlining events were from designers Alexander McQueen, Raf Simons, and ROKSANDA; the latter two designers were originally scheduled for London Fashion Week that ran from September 16th-20th, but were postponed due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
All the runway pieces seen from McQueen, Simons, and ROKSANDA beautifully encapsulated the contemporary focus of the Frieze festival.
Sarah Burton, creative director of the fashion house Alexander McQueen, chose the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, London as the setting of McQueen’s spring 2023 ready-to-wear collection. The show took place in a large, inflatable bubble located in the middle of the 17th century landmark, blending contemporary fashion seamlessly with the antiquity and history of the setting.
Burton’s collection, titled “First Sight,” focused on the human eye.
“The eye is the most unique symbol of humanity—each one is like a fingerprint; each one is completely individual,” Burton told Vogue. “It’s sort of about seeing things again,” she said. “Not walking around with your eyes shut, your eyes down. Just seeing each other, recognizing each other’s humanity. Caring about each other.”
“First Sight” featured a contemporary twist on classic designs: tuxedos, blazers, trench coats, and pantsuits were sharply tailored to create clean, geometric, eye-catching lines. Low-cut trousers featured with cropped blazers were a revival of Alexander McQueen’s “bumsters,” a nod to the original designs of the late fashion designer.
The eye motif was recurrent throughout the collection and was in conjunction with the laser-sharp cuts, printed onto the focal points of asymmetrical dresses, pantsuits, and jumpsuits. As a result, the pieces shown provided a cohesive, yet highly inventive new collection.
Raf Simons — former creative director of Jil Sander, Christian Dior, Calvin Klein and current co-creative director of Prada and founder of his eponymous brand Raf Simons — showed his Spring/Summer 2023 collection for Raf Simons on October 13th; a runway show postponed from London Fashion Week.
Coming off Prada’s simultaneously futuristic, goth, and business chic collection that showcased Simons’ innovation at Milan Fashion Week SS23 in September, Simons’ new collection representing his own label was highly anticipated.
His collection, titled “Corps, Coda,” took inspiration from ballet. The runway took place in a former industrial printing plant in southeast London, the backdrop featuring a floor-to-ceiling screen with a video of a single dancer in Simons’ clothing.
The collection featured a diverse array of 80’s-inspired neon color palettes, mesh clothing, ballet-like leggings and tights, and romper suits. “Corps, Coda” also featured oversized, leather jackets and a recurring theme of a layered, slightly undone look.
The scribbled designs on many of the shirts from the collection, raw hems, and contrasting textiles marks a departure from the fashion house’s signature perfected look in an innovative, yet highly-wearable new collection from Simons.
Roksanda Ilinčić, Serbian fashion designer and creator of the luxury fashion brand ROKSANDA, also postponed her LFW runway show due to Queen Elizabeth’s death.
Ilinčić’s Frieze runway took place at the Serpentine Gallery in London’s Hyde Park where she has historically shown her runway collections for several seasons. She chose Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates’s “Black Chapel,” a circular black building with an oculus, as her backdrop for the show.
ROKSANDA, known for its bold colors, theatrical silhouettes and use of the rose as a recurrent motif, certainly followed its core aesthetic with even more voluminous silhouettes and the use of black for designs throughout the pieces. Additionally, the art of Pipilotti Rist, a longtime inspiration of Ilinčić, influenced the bold patterns of the ROKSANDA SS23 collection.
The dramatic tailoring of ROKSANDA’s pieces created a sculptural experience in conjunction with more feminine aspects: long trains, hats and ribbons. The collection also featured many different fabrics and patterns that all blended together into one harmonious look – a product of Ilinčić’s talent for show-stopping, contemporary looks.