:: Dispatches from London Fashion Week ::

Press, purchasers, priority patrons and posers fill the rows at the catwalk space at Somerset House. Your level of importance degrades as you go from front-row to standing room only– most to least important, respectively.
The fashion industry, can often be encapsulated in one word: pretension. From the objectification of beauty, to the fixation on the pursuit of luxury and consumption, to a skewed sense of reality, there is a good deal to be critical of.

But there are moments where if you want a good spectacle, that’s what you get. Creativity, drama and even innovation can shine through when the lights dim, the music turns on and the looks march down the catwalk at a Fashion Week show, to the pulsing camera flashes. If you’re lucky– some might be iconic, some will readily be interpreted for purchase at your local shopping mall, and others just as forgettable. And that’s what its all about.

With that, we joined the ranks (sneaking in to a middling row number three) at the Jena.Theo show at London Fashion Week.

To see the Autumn/Winter 2010 collection from Jena.Theo come down the runway at London Fashion Week, it is difficult to believe that just half a year ago the duo behind the line, Jenny Holmes and Dimitris Theocharidis, were participating in their very first catwalk show as part of Fashion Fringe at Covent Garden.

After winning that Fashion Fringe competition, their star has risen quite quickly. But the tag team tries to stay true to their core inspirations, drawing from their heritages– British and Greek– and well as the vibrant, diverse City of London.

This collection, their first solo excursion was inspired by silent movies, French resistance, 3D effects, 1940s aesthetic and 1950s glamour to produce a cheeky yet modern take on those varied influences.

Whereas other collections This Is Worldtown saw during LFW that found a sense of sanctuary in the past, Jena.Theo uses it as more of a thread, a footnote even, to unite and provide context to a strikingly contemporary collection.

Using voluminous quantities of fabric and unstructured silhouettes, the collection sounds like it has the potential to overwhelm, not flatter. However, the masterful way in which proportion was employed made the jersey fabrics, that dominated the collection, drape in a beautiful, innovative way– ensuring that the individual would be the one wearing the outfit, not the other way around. Knits and suiting also complimented the collection.

It was  a welcome affront to the overkill of the body con trend. After all, fashion design is about manipulating fabric, and doing things a bit differently.
“Confident, original and independent…an ambitious woman with aspirations.” is how the design duo would describe a Jena.Theo woman.

The blues and greys, with the basic black and white provided a perfect cool-weather colour palette, and the signature abstract prints, declaring obscure phrases such as “Rolling Drums” were stunning.

Stand-out pieces that tapped down the catwalk were Charlie Chaplin-esque suits, oversized jumpers, gorgeously constructed cardigans, high-waisted (really high!) pants, and meticulously draped dresses.

As the designers emerge briefly at the finale , we appreciate a superb show that leaves pretension aside, for a few precious moments, and lets talent shine through, lets fashion speak like a moving painting– lets the collection be the only thing judged, regardless of where you are sitting.

House lights up. Bravo. Applause. End scene. See you next Season.

Fashion is indeed fickle.

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Photos from Vogue.com