London Fashion Week: Burberry S/S 2013 - shop it now!

No doubt many of you were viewing the Burberry show via the amazing livestream the label provides each season, so we will save you a long and drawn-out show review. Needless to say, there were plenty of the trademark trench coats and outerwear, but for Spring / Summer 2013, things got brighter and shinier at Burberry than they've been for a very long time. Some have compared the rainbow of belted metallic trenches that closed the show to a tin of Quality Street chocolates - all in jewel shades of blue, pink, purple, green and claret.

Thanks to Burberry's incredible digital initiative, you can order the clothes seconds after they've hit the catwalk - so if you have £2000 to spare for a cropped purple capelet or a lacy wiggle dress, you can place your order now.

Our top tips are the leather trench in green and blue metallic, like poured peacock feathers, and the corset detail silk jackets (long and short) in beautiful degrade silks. We also loved the oversize belted coats in ombre blue and pink, and the delicate lace trench coats in shades of gold and green.

We'd advise you give the big shoulders a miss though - if these make tiny models look like linebackers, imagine what they'll look like on us mere mortals?

Louise Gray's ghetto fabulous Spring / Summer 2013 at LFW

After pairing up with Topshop to create a limited edition range recently, it came as no real surprise that Louise Gray was showing her Spring / Summer 2013 collection at the Topshop show space this afternoon at London Fashion Week, so we popped along to see what was on offer from the Scottish designer.

Renowned for her creative combinations, off the wall thinking and dare devil designs, there's no denying Louise Gray tends to push the boundaries in terms of style combinations that you quite simply wouldn't find anywhere else, and this season was no different. Her usual design signatures were ever present, think colour, texture, hand silk screened, specially developed fabrics, embroidery and hand printed techniques, but the combinations, layering and styling were like never before.

With what I took as a ghetto type edge, prints went down a graffiti type route, layered up in what felt like care free combinations for w real rebellious edge. Accessories only added to the feel, with oversized mirror earrings in exclamation (!) shapes and metal plate headwear which added humour with thought bubble, bow and hat shaped cut outs. Hair and makeup matched the look with high volume messy beehive style bouffants, clown-esque zig zag eyebrows and statement beauty spots.

Erdem Moralioglu's show

Erdem Moralioglu's show is a highlight of many people's London Fashion Week, and it's likely that few fans were disappointed with this season's offerings, which were inspired by Zenna Henderson's 'The People' - a story of aliens trying to fit in on a new planet. The key was in the juxtaposition; bright colours on pale pastel backgrounds, snakeskin and soft lace combined, dots and floral mixed together. Things that weren't quite right, but looked great all the same!

It was a stunning show for fans of the feminine and romantic. While Erdem is not the first designer to artfully mix neons and pastels (see Christopher Kane's early work) he did so in a very accomplished, modern way.

Making pastels look sophisticated is never an easy challenge, and throw in shades of bright orange and neon yellow and it's even harder. Through his use of simple shapes, clever textures and luxurious fabrics, Erdem kept this collection looking expensive, not childish, but it still had a whimsical feel about it.

Towards the end of the show, the blues came out - this seems like London Fashion Week law by this point. If you don't show a shade of blue, you might as well go home! There were also structured full skirts, a few pairs of slim, patterned trousers, and a series of long column dresses with splits up the side.

London Fashion Week SS2013: David Koma's tennis delights

The Olympics may have drawn to an close but great sportswear definitely has not as David Koma's tennis-inspired crop tops, shorts and t-shirt dresses hit the catwalk yesterday.

The collection was inspired by the female tennis stars of yesteryear that brought style and elegance to a sport once dominated by men, Suzanne Lenglen, Gussie Moran and Lea Pericoli. Influenced by these women Koma brought the tennis dress into modern day with his own mod-like spin.

With a strict colour palette of just grass green, tangerine orange, neat white and palatinate blue, Koma focused on structure, pleating and texture as well as layering with sheer to add new dimensions; we particularly liked his use of patent leathers over thick jersey.
Pattern-wise Koma kept things simple using graphics as both print and embroidery to give the symmetrical tennis-net print a three-dimensional, luxe appeal.

Keeping with theme, the new season heels provided by shoe designer Alain Quilici even featured real tennis racket handle grip. We even got to hop backstage and check out the little beauties right up close, why not have a peep at our gallery above?

One things for sure, if this is the attire then David Koma will have us all taking up tennis next year.

Click here to view the whole gallery 

London Fashion Week S/S 2013 - Giles horses around

Doutzen Kroes! Laser-cut leather! Big pouffy prom dresses! Ridiculous headwear! There was no mistaking the Giles show, which offered up plenty of the designer's trademarks with all his usual wit, albeit with a slightly more laid-back atmosphere than previous seasons.

We haven't seen a horse print used so extensively since Stella McCartney's Chloe days, but Giles bought it back, and took it to the next level, for look closer and you realise these were winged horses. Behold! Pegasus is the new owl (which was the new swallow). Hunt it down in a print immediately.

Elsewhere the laser-cut leathers got even more dramatic - previously we've seen them from Giles in metallics, this time they were on fishtail hems and black mini dresses, more detailed than ever before. The high street is going to have a hard job copying this in PVC without creating something that falls apart after seconds of wear.

The colour palette was - unsurprisingly - mostly the Spring / Summer 2013 failsafes of black, white and blue, and there was plenty of the sparkle that we've seen all over the London catwalks evident in the evening dresses towards the end of the show.

Read more at http://www.catwalkqueen.tv/2012/09/london_fashion_week_giles_ss2013.html#zyuK44yqzJXFDKk1.99