London Fashion Week: Hannah Marshall and Sass & Bide

The shows in the capital kicked off today and I started my Fashion Week with a visit backstage at Hannah Marshall, where Alain Pichon of L’oreal was working models’ hair into crimped quiffs. “We wanted something quite graphic,” he said, “and the aim is make the hair quite square. It’s hard but feminine, and much softer and sleeker at the back.”

Marshall showed back to back with the Felder sisters, whose collection featured scale-print skater dresses and frou-frou skirts, as well as crystal embellished, high-waisted bikinis. A stand-out piece was a draped black silk dress with leather straps.

Hannah Marshall eschewed her usual black leather and body-con shapes for softer sheer chiffon pieces and tailoring, again all in black, which were reminiscent of Helmut Newton’s cigarette trousered femme fatales. The second phase of the show came in grey suede that had been worked into sculptural shift dresses and leggings, embellished with great quills of pleats.

Next up was Sass & Bide at the Royal Opera House. A raffia-backed show ticket promised hula girls but the collection was geared toward futuristic tribalism: shard print silk jumpsuits, enhanced with twists of fabric and cutaway details. Copper belts and armoured harnesses too, and the promised raffia came as jackets, skirts and ruffs.

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