Mary Katrantzou

London Fashion Week is now drawing to an end and I've been coveting some of the collections online. I'm always drawn to the designs of Mary Katrantzou who is a pioneer of print and colour. Her latest Spring 2018 collection was no exception, with a full spectrum of bright colours and floral prints. She often draws her inspiration from her childhood, growing up in the 80s and has used Lego influences, as well as painting by numbers and even a few crocheted pieces in her collection.

The stunning floral above has been combined with a sporty nylon rainwear fabric.

I love this form-fitting crochet dress above. Who said crochet couldn't be sexy?!

I always gravitate to bright colours and the outfit above uses all my favourite colours. I love the Lego-influenced skirt design and flamingo handbag.

The outfit above uses another traditional technique - quilting.

The outfits above and below use a fabulously overblown floral. I love the way that some of the florals are kept as black and whites to give the feel of painting by numbers.

Dries Van Noten

I'm a few days late in mentioning this, but I had to post some images of the latest Dries Van Noten collection shown at Paris Fashion Week a few days ago, and seen on Vogue.com.

As a textile designer, I always gravitate towards pattern and colour and the Dries Van Noten collection had all of that, and more! Dries wanted a brutalist approach to this collection, chopping up garments and throwing flower prints onto them to create heavy contrast.

Some garments were asymmetrically designed. I love the extra long sleeve of the dress above. 

Vibrant colours sat against deep black or soft white grounds. The coat above is stunning and reminds me of many of the vibrant obi fabrics I came across in Tokyo.

Several outfits incorporated heavily beaded Victorian-Inspired neck pieces.

The blue one below picks out the blue from the print on other outfits and acts as a dramatic contrast to the beige and black dress.

The coat below reminds me of the Chinese silk fabrics I picked up on a recent trip to New York and am looking forward to making some more clutch bags out of it. Watch this space for the next instalment.

I love the combination of the acid yellow and brown of the outfit below, with stunning florals.

It's a bit difficult to see from these photos, but the runway was flagged by stunning floral arrangements that emulated rich botanical oil paintings. Each arrangement had been frozen in a massive block of ice to create a temporary ice display case for each piece.

Kimono-tastic!

I really am a sucker for the gorgeous kimono fabrics here and the brighter the better. After a little break from making the kimono clutches (I've been focusing more on obi, indigo and tenegui items recently) I am back with a vengeance and have been working on some lovely pieces from my box of kimono fabrics. I often find it's good to take a break and come back with fresh eyes. I will be adding more kimono clutches to my Etsy store over the next few days, so watch this space.

In the meantime, you can check out my clutch bag selection here.

Lauren Alison

Lauren and Sammy are the owners of the beautiful Etsy shop called Lauren Alison. Each item is designed and screen printed by Lauren, while Sammy works on the business side of things, so a wonderfully rounded duo! The tea towels and cushion covers they produce come in stunningly bright  colours on fresh cream grounds and would be a wonderful addition to any room.

You can see more of their beautiful pieces here.