Giles

Spring/Summer 2012Ready-To-WearLondon


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Show Report

STEPPING inside the Royal Courts of Justice when Giles Deacon shows a collection there is rather like stepping, one imagines, into the set of Harry Potter. There is a magic, there is an underlying sense of darkness and there is a one very grand hall at the centre of it all.

This evening, instead of the likes of Hermione Granger, Potter et al lining the court’s banqueting space, it was Jessie J, Dannii Minogue, Pixie Geldof, Erin O’Connor and Kelly Brook.

From the first look out – a white tuxedo complete with ornate and elaborate Stephen Jones swan headdress above it – it was clear that this was going to be one of Giles’ spectaculars. A meeting of heaven and hell seemed to pursue as angelic looks of feathers, silver dresses and laser cuts combined with vivid red detailing to offset them – the red the beak of the swan which was to become the overriding theme, featuring as it did as a print on everything from couture-esque gowns to trousers and tunics.

Silver strands and tassels trailed from skirts to create dropped waists while corsets elsewhere pulled in waists to ballerina effect and fused T-shirts into dresses. Skirts were of ball gown proportions, puffed out to dramatic effect and echoing those we had spotted earlier in the day at Peter Pilotto .

Feathers and lace combined to make the most angelic of designs with pink lilac feathers, fixed with glistening jewels wafting from empire lines to incarnate the models as graceful swans gliding down the catwalk. Cloaks and robes of billowing sizes were perfectly suitable for the judicial surround and further trophy gowns and swan headdresses – one in red and one in black – compacted the designer’s Silver Swan theme, inspired by early Cecil Beaton portraits of his sisters Nancy and Baba. Andy Warhol’s Silver Clouds also played its part – as did photographs of Leigh Bowery. Giles was definitely thinking out of this world – and perhaps of the recent Black Swan film from which you couldn’t help but draw some comparisons, be they there on purpose or not. Grand and graceful, the gowns were as brilliant as Giles does – but pretty with it.

“The couture-like prowess of Giles Deacon really ups the ante for London Fashion Week and highlights of the show included laser-cut silver, extravagant plumes, trailing ball skirts. It had beautiful drama that befits a 21st Century swan,” said Vogue’s Emma Elwick-Bates as the show drew to a close and all the swans took to the catwalk, the lights blacked out and they took their final pose, arms outstretched like wings and then gone.

SEE THE GILES SHOW ARCHIVE

With thanks to Mercedes Benz.

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