Creativity and fresh ideas are definitely what characterise London Fashion Week. Yet there have been cases when, while the designs worn by the models striding down the catwalk were fresh and original, their quality left something to be desired. Surely, though, this is not Erdem Moralioglu’s case.
A graduate of the MA course in fashion at the Royal College of Art, Moralioglu’s main focus has always been on silk prints, textiles and embroideries.
Keeping these starting points firmly in mind, the designer injected in his latest collection his trademark demi-couture romanticism in a colour palette lifted in part from Russian artist Léon Bakst. 
Moralioglu successfully repackaged these rather mature and carefully researched influences for a younger customer and came up with short empire line and bell-shaped dresses in silk or satin with lace panels, multi-coloured flower cluster prints or golden flowers blooming on black fabrics, blurred hand-painted flowery motifs printed on short dresses with puffed-up skirts and appliquéd roses delicately decorating the necklines.
There was also a great emphasis on details, especially in the architectural construction of the sleeves, the shoulders and the full ruffled frothy collars. Erdem’s closing numbers - a few full-length gowns - were a sort of final question rather than the logic conclusion to the show. "Will Moralioglu’s one day move on and maybe go to Paris?" they seemed to be asking. Only time will tell, but for now, customers who are into demi-couture should maybe keep an eye on him.
While Moralioglu focused on a romantically feminine vision for his next collection, Marios Schwab chose a strong and adventurous woman as the muse for his A/W 09 designs.
For this new collection Schwab deconstructed the human body, studied the way it moves and changes, while at the same time focusing on the structure of minerals and the colour sequence and design they reveal when they are cut in half.
Like those stones that once broken reveal hidden materials and constructions, Schwab’s body-con dresses were slashed open to reveal hidden prints and textures, at times embedded with crystals. Fabric was ruffled and pleated imitating rock formations, while the blurred red and blue printed motifs on some skin-tight numbers created optical illusions of the 3D kind.
Also Roksanda Ilincic loves strong women, though they’re not as rock hard as Schwab’s. Ilincic’s ideal woman is indeed stylishly elegant and knows how to carry off with style those exaggerated details the designer favours.
Voluminous frills and bows characterised Ilincic’s tops and dresses while well-sculpted stiff shoulders added a dramatic effect to jackets that called to mind Capucci’s boxed look.
Ilincic managed to turn into intriguing creations even the most difficult looks such as the faux crocodile dresses, though her best efforts were the asymmetrical and deconstructed column-dresses with misaligned waists, as they added a bit of clever surrealism to the collection.
A heavy dose of aggression accompanied by a touch of barbarism and mixed with a hint of well, something already seen, arrived with Giles Deacon.
The first outfits - grey flannel dresses and bustiers with a double G logo accessorised with big furry gloves - were almost tamed, but then it was the turn of circular skirts and A-line dresses studded with dangerous metal spikes.
More variation and colour arrived towards the end with fly-fishing prints, splashes of neon colours, chunky knits and rather unnecessarily cumbersome rocket-shaped capes.
Materials such as silk, felt, wool, studs and random bits and pieces of tortoiseshell were used in an interesting way to create opaque-lucid contrasts. As a collection it wasn’t certainly among the most cohesive ones, though it was varied enough and it definitely bore Giles’ punkish trademark.
If you are among those few fashion-obsessed people out there with not enough faith in the possibilities of the black colour, fur and leather, 
well, Louise Goldin has got the right designs to convince you that beauty and variation can be achieved using these three materials in new and exciting ways.
Goldin’s collection was a feast of wool, cashmere, lurex and leather, with the occasional bits of fur.
Her technologically advanced knits, the way she used fox fur to decorate the shoulders of a knitted tweed jacket and her multi-tiered dresses in leather, lurex and wool had a strong architectural feel about them.
The armour theme was probably on Goldin’s mind as she came up with this collection, but the designer cleverly applied it in her black panelled skirts and mini-dresses in dark tones of blue and violet, creating an innovative and highly saleable collection.
A final mention goes to "the Caledonian queen of cling” Pam Hogg who came back to LFW after a 10-year absence.
Bringing back a bit of much-needed anarchy on the catwalk, Hogg presented her latest collection that featured multi-coloured fur jackets and leggings, bold coloured Lycra catsuits and bodysuits with strips of sequins, Latex dresses and space-age capes.
It was a typically Hogg collection, but at the same time, this was an eagerly anticipated return from the femme fatale who liberated women with her dynamically sexy designs. (Image by Dazed's Katie Shillingford, who also styled the show).
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