Antoni & Alison AW12 show at London Fashion Week

This season, a kind of tradition was broken; there was no Paul Costelloe to kick off the LFW proceedings.  Saddened at first but no time to mourn as the excitement mounted whilst waiting to view the designer duo Antoni & Alison‘s opening show.

On the surface, this was a kinda ‘what you see is what you get’ sort of a collection with no hidden meaning or storyline.  The title was ‘Models Walking Up and Down in Dresses’ and that’s what happened. The models walked up and down the catwalk in dresses; no trousers, coats, skirts or jackets, just dresses. 

However, these simply cut and loosely fitted shift dresses were not just dresses, they were blank canvases for the designers to display their trompe l’oeil works of art using digital printing. 

‘We have been looking to make these pieces since we were students’ they say ‘it’s only technology that has allowed us to make them now’. 

And like kids in a candy store, they’d grabbed and digitally printed everything at hand from biscuits, cellophane, brown paper bag, and staples to feathers, buttons, taffeta and tweed. 

This ‘random’ assortment was well thought out producing textures and detailing whilst the actual fabric remains smooth and unadorned.

There' a few long maxi dresses:

Combining oversized buttons with wool and paper bag. And  'Putting on the Ritz' was the hand drawn bow tie and tux with long skirt of digital printed gems

To keep the focus on the prints everything else was minimal, the models wore black wigs in a short pixie hairstyle and the shoes were plain black pointed court shoes.

The collection will soon be available at their shop:

43 Roseberry Avenue, London EC1R 4SH or online www.antoniandalison.co.uk  Prices are around the £400 mark.

Photos provided by Village Press