Where Christopher Kane leads, others follow – which is why his show is always one of the most anticipated of London Fashion Week. At his SS15 show he managed to tap summer collection favourite theme ‘nautical’ without going near a Breton stripe. Instead he laced dresses, tops and jackets with sea-faring rope knots woven with the same pale blue that got us giddy at Jonathan Saunders, but here contrasted with rich conker red rather than camel.
His ever-covetable dresses featured rising sun boning (not a euphemism) detail, with skin showing through matching mesh. Bets on whether Alexa or Poppy D wears one to an event first? Where he wasn’t tempting us with his signature 3D details (Rope! Tulle ruffles!), Kane had us hooked on silk that looked smoother than the chocolate in a Galaxy advert in that conker red again, and a moon-like silvery shade. In short: Want. It. All.
Christopher Kane SS15
Christopher Kane SS15
Christopher Kane SS15
Christopher Kane SS15
Christopher Kane SS15
Christopher Kane SS15
Christopher Kane SS15
Christopher Kane SS15
Christopher Kane SS15
Brand new collection aside, there’s no doubt that Christopher Kane is like a modern Gianni Versace. Remember that bit in The Devil Wears Prada where Meryl Streep delivers a quietly brilliant speech about the distillery that is the fashion industry? Kane is at the top of the ladies fashion foodchain. You may not think you’re wearing him (‘He’s way too wild for me!’ you may exclaim, primly) – but trust us, you are. Let us count the ways.
**1. Anything fluro in your wardrobe
**
Cast your memory back to AW06 and you may recall a very young Scottish designer and his collection of skin-tight bandage dresses with eye-popping fluoro details. ‘It was my first collection and I wanted to go as bright as possible,’ he explained rather fairly. The dresses (with their plunging zips) were not for everyone – though he did finally lend some credibility to the reality TV favourite, bandage dresses – but how many of your snapped up a acid yellow tee or perhaps a neon pink pair of skinny jeans? For a while, it all went a bit Ibiza rave scene in London. It’s calmed down now, but we’re all still partial to a bit of neon trim on a clutch bag, or on the cuff of a muted shirt. That’s the Kane effect.
2. If you've ever gone near metallic camo
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How many times did you go to Whistles last season and pray at the altar of that metallic A-Line camo skirt? Perhaps you logged onto ASOS and nabbed a pair of their Motel camo cut-offs. Or sifted through Topshop, looking for that camo parka, with a fleecey hood. No, you weren't just having a military moment, you were absorbing the Kane by osmosis. His camo co-ord – a boxy jacquard jacket with a fur hood and a pleated camo mini skirt – was one of the strongest catwalk looks of AW13.
**3. Worn an embellished sweater with a midi skirt? That’s him, too
**
The hi-low dichotomy of a super girly midi skirt worn with a sporty-meets-femme pastel embellished or grey slogan sweater - a combo which has recently cropped up in more streetstyle pictures than we’ve had cups of tea – recently offered us a way to wear a ladylike, almost mumsy skirt that we secretly always craved but had no idea what to wear it with. You may not have realised that that was a SS14 Kane special – but we bet you’ll have been excited when you realised that you could finally buy that floral flared skirt from Topshop, knowing that you could legitimately pair it with an American Apparel sweater and a pair of Nike Air Max (perhaps even a pair of little lacy socks, too) and still look more urban stylista than batty Aunt Deidre.
4. Tie-dyed anything
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Gone are the days when tie-dye was relegated to a Stussy T-shirt that everyone knew you were only wearing cos you’d slept at a friend’s house and she decided to be a real cow and only lend you that particular T-shirt. Bad hippie uniform or dodgy ’90s holiday gear, was all poor tie-dye had by association. And then suddenly in 2011 we found ourselves buying tie-dyed dresses from Urban Outfitters, jeans from Zara and T-shirts from Splendid.... not to mention pining for a transparent Klear Klutch, too. Want to know where this sudden fixation came from? Christopher Kane’s awesome wibbly-wobbly transparent tie-dye clutches for AW11, thank you please. We still want one of those bags, by the way. Even if they do look like they’d be bust in a second by an errant pencil.
**5. Also... galaxy print
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Sci-fi, celestial, futuristic... call it what you will, but remember when all you wanted was a clutch bag covered in stars, or a sweater covered in galactic explosions? Perhaps you even tried to hand dye your own ‘nebular’ print T-shirt, whilst simulatenously avoiding the legions of dodgy planet-strewn leggings on the high street. Who wants a moon covering their hoo-ha? Anyway, you’ve got Kane to thank for all that. His super-tight racer back leather galaxy print dress from SS11 – as worn by Ms Chung – was the inadvertent kicker that sent us on our own sartorial Virgin Galactic quest.
6. A monster tee?
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You know those items of clothing which are so ugly they're awesome? A bit like the appeal of the scrunchie, in fact. And let’s be honest, the Furkenstock (fur-lined Birk, if you're confused there). And what about all those really really dicey muscle-sleeve tees that you find yourself pining for? The burnt orange band tee, or perhaps a geek-chic dinosaur one? Well, cast your mind back to Kane’s capsule collection x Topshop in 2009 and you might remember his alligator dress, or his gorilla T-shirt from his 2009 mainline collection. Either way, your boobs were feeling positively prehistoric for a good chunk of 2009. And probably will do again.
7. Anything origami. Or neon.
Kane’s last collection featured beautifully crafted origami-style dresses (the stuff of dreams), which every single high street store seems to have copied. And neon green – a classic Christopher Kane colour. So if you’ve bought anything like that recently, you can put it down to the Kane affect. And give yourself a great big fashion pat on the back.
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Pictures: Jason Lloyd-Evans, Getty, Rex
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.