London Fashion Week 2022 took place between 18-22 February 2022, with designers showing off their Autumn Winter 2022 Collections. The runway shows, true to form, showed a brilliant blend of diverse fashion, often combining avantgarde high fashion with some of the more trendy revivals we have seen in recent months. Keep reading for some of the biggest trends and best designers.
One of the biggest trends from London Fashion Week was the use of cut out shapes. This is one trend that we have already seen seeping into our day to day fashion wear, but designers such as Stella McCartney have shown elegantly how big and small cutouts can be used to create distinct asymmetrical shapes.
Renaissance Return – Designers such as Jayne Pierson shows us how sleek and sophisticated renaissance style patterned clothing can be. Corsets and bustiers have also been making a big comeback in fashion recently and the London fashion week runways were no exception. This promises a return to a more maximalist style – and to lean fully into this try pairing ethereal bustiers and corsets with pearls for your own Bridgerton revival.
Chunky gold jewellery made a popular appearance at this year's London Fashion Week too, particularly with the involvement of designers such as Emma Chapman. She describes her designs as "pure treasure, finely crafted heirloom jewellery with a luxe bohemian edge.” The jewellery showcased chunky gold statement pieces inspired by religious mosaics and stained glass. Although it may not be easy to incorporate one of Chapman’s actual pieces into our wardrobes (the pendant necklaces start at about £200),gold bohemian jewellery is easy to find and pairs well with
the floral prints of spring and summer.
The society girl style of Blair Waldorf was another noticeable trend across London Fashion Week. Chunky headbands and mini sun-glasses were shown off with wool vests and blazers. These have been paired neatly with 2022 trends such as low rise jeans and washed outY2K colours. Obviously the style of Blair Waldorf might not be student budget friendly, but this is something you like the look of then definitely think about opting for cheaper alice bands and mini bags in preppy pastel colours.
There doesn't seem to be a fashion cycle that can go by without the escape of a workwear revival. The Guardian and the DailyMail both cite big blazers and workwear staples as spring essentials. We can take inspiration from massive fashion houses such as Miu Mui whose summer/spring 2022 collections brandish pleated skirts, cropped sweater vests, and chunky loafers, to smaller designers like Hannah Fiedler whose London Fashion Week collections show off workwear in a seductive way with oversized suits and lots of satin slips.
In terms of colours, bright and bold looks took pride of place at a lot of the shows with neon colours. Bright block colours have been a summer staple for a couple of years now and are a brilliant way for the braver among us to show off our personal styles. Another great thing about this trend is how easy it is for us to bring it into non-designer style. It’s also super easy to pair with the other trends that we have seen – try a neon pop into your work-wear, or even a bright coloured hair band with your preppy look. Interestingly, the neon colours were a massive staple of the spring/summer trend, but the fact that we see these bright colours staying strong for autumn and winter suggests strong colour choices are here to stay!
As always, London Fashion Week did not just offer us clothes trends, but showcased an impressive range of beauty trends too. In the style of Euphoria, a lot of the makeup artists at fashion week opted for face embellishments in order to create a super fun and striking look. For his debut show, Conner Ives brought us way back to the 2000s with both style and makeup but the standout was definitely the chunky face gems donned by the models. Whilst not all of us may want to feature such a bold DIY look into our day to day make-up, we can easily take inspiration and incorporate smaller gems and sticky diamantes into our eye makeup looks. The time of maximalist makeup is definitely upon us.