When I was a zit-ridden teenager fingering fashion magazines, website like this what attracted me most was weird and wacky shows presented in strange environments. While the cavernous BFC tent does ‘feel’ like fashion week, I don’t half love a show with a bit of imagination in an unusual venue.
In the little Bedford & Strand bistro, just off the Strand, Omar Kashoura presented his A/W 2010 collection. This quaint bar-cum-restaurant has the decor of chic Parisian cafés, and lines of cocktails in martini glasses decorated the bar. (As did bottles of V Water, which took that roaring forties edge off things, unfortunately).
Models were instructed to walk accross the bar front, and disappear through a make-shift curtain just to the side of where me and Amelia stood with our Canon 5Ds, trying desperately to get a good shot, which proved nigh-on impossible due to the stark lighting that models walked in and out of. ‘Oooh… oooh…. he’s in the light… CLICK…. ah, MISSED it!’
Kashoura’s inspiration is relatively simple – it’s day to day life in the urban environment. His ethos is that while clothes should be stylish, a man-about-town type should be able to go about his business unhindered – hell, what if clothes could actually ease our way of life?
I’m getting all this from the press release, mind – I’ll have to take Kashoura’s word for it. I didn’t spot any functional features, such as ‘hidden ankle cinches ideal for cyclists’, but then I wouldn’t, would I?
What I did see were well-tailored outfits made from luxurious fabrics. High-waisted trousers with intricate fastenings were omnipresent, and were combined with floral print evening scarves and relatively simple, crisp white shirts.
The same floral print – graphical, not feminine – was applied to trousers, bags and shirts, too – I would always air on the side of caution when it comes to floral shirts, unless cleverly teamed with Kashoura’s very masculine tailored trousers.
Kashoura also made great use of lux fabrics with a high aesthetic appeal – wrinkled waxed cotton shirts and unfinished knitwear being great examples of this.
One to watch, deffo.
Categories ,A/W 2010, ,Bedford & Strand, ,Bistro, ,Floral prints, ,London Fashion Week, ,menswear, ,Omar Kashoura, ,sartorial, ,tailoring
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