London Fashion Week isn’t just about the garments, there’s also a whole host of millinery talent, accessory designers and footwear brands in amongst the other schedule fixtures. On the final day of FW18 show season my schedule showed no signs of slowing down and right in the middle of my day I found myself at an awesome footwear presentation at the previous home of London Fashion Week, Somerset House.
Alexander White is a British luxury footwear brand offering timeless, elegant footwear combined with contemporary and playful silhouettes. Each piece is designed in London and expertly handmade by skilled artisans in Florence. The collections produced by Alexander White are inspired and influenced by White’s surroundings, from architecture to antique and vintage jewellery, and reinterpreted in a fresh and energetic way.
The Portico Rooms at Somerset House provide the perfect location for the FW18 Disco Cowboy presentation. The huge windows mean that the room is flooded with natural light making the huge disco ball centrepiece, the most perfectly placed prop. For his FW18 collection White found his inspiration in the southern regions of the US and it shows right through the Disco Cowboy collection. The collection is very much a fusion of Studio 54 with its glamour and vibrancy, and Western staples including buckles and accent stitching. Think glitter and wet look snakeskin, the collection features all of it. With extra glitter.
Central to the collection is the most perfect pair of heeled cowboy boots covered in silver glitter, the very embodiment of the theme Disco Cowboy and probably what you’re likely to imagine in your head when you say the words. White has incorporated Swarovski crystals, floral prints, glitter, velvet and satin to create a variety of textures and shapes throughout the collection. Each silhouette has been planned and developed meticulously and White has expanded on his penchant for printing eye catching designs on to specchio leather to produce a collection that’s as worthy of a light up disco floor, as it is of a red carpet.
White is ahead of the curve when it comes to presenting fashion forward footwear. His designs inspire a million lookalikes on the high street every season and if you think the shapes are familiar that’s because high street footwear giant Kurt Geiger have lifted several of White’s designs and respun them in seasons gone by. Flattering yes, but also very naughty.
White’s A-list clients include Emma Watson, Alicia Vikander, Joan Smalls and Carey Mulligan amongst many others and although certainly not A-list, I’m thinking of adding myself to that list by starting with those side buckle glitter boots.
Pixie xo
Ironically, at the time Blahnik didn’t produce a bridal range, the Hangisi was selected for the show by both Patricia Field and Sarah Jessica Parker and thus one of the most memorable scenes in TV fashion was created.
