Fashion East RTW Fall 2013

Claire Barrow RTW Fall 2013

Claire Barrow RTW Fall 2013

There were three very different ideas of femininity on the catwalk in collections from Claire Barrow, Ryan Lo and Ashley Williams. Claire Barrow, making a return to the Fashion East runway, began with a moody reflection on life’s mundanities. Using lamp shades as hats and watering cans and bowling balls for handbags, she worked in brown corduroy for coats embroidered with white birds. Full-skirted dresses came in black velvet, khaki velvet devoré and a white veiled bridal option. It was jolie laide and a bit awkward, but that was the point.

Ryan Lo RTW Fall 2013

Ryan Lo RTW Fall 2013

Source: WWD

Mark Fast RTW Fall 2013

The Canadian designer, known for his intricate, cobweb-like knitwear creations showed only nine looks for fall 2013. If the one cape — long, fitted and all done with dripping silky fringes — was a convincing alternative to fur for a night out, a couple of big, graphic shawls wrapped around the models’ shoulders didn’t looked as distinctive.

The Mark Fast woman seems to be in something of a funk, or rather it is the designer himself—the collection is called Through the Darkness, after all. Apparently, the designer decided to use this ill mood and create some beautiful garments in the process. A tight, black, shaggy mohair maxi dress opened the proceedings but was given something of a monastic feel with the addition of a black knitted headpiece—this was a motif that was repeated throughout. In short, it is hard to be seen as a simple sexpot in a knitted coif—even with the addition of some remarkable stocking shoes by the footwear designer Eelko Moorer.

In fact, the coif appeared to be a nod to the costume designer and art director Eiko Ishioka, who died last year and was one of the inspirations for the show. Among her credits were the Oscar-winning costumes for Bram Stoker's Dracula and the production design of Mishima, as well as the extraordinary costumes in that profoundly odd Jennifer Lopez vehicle The Cell. As Fast said at the end of his show, "I had drama going on in my life, and this was reflected in the drama in the clothes. These were dark times, but I wanted to find the beauty in that and show emotion through texture. It was a different way of working for me." And it succeeded.

Vivienne Westwood Red Label RTW Fall 2013

"At one point I was quite contemptuous of punks left over from the movement. I thought punk folded because of a lack of ideas, and I wanted to carry on learning. It wasn't enough to go jumping around and spitting. And then, earlier this year, I was talking to some of the young male models at the men's show, and they had that punk mentality: Don't trust governments ever. I think that is punk. And they were interested in what they wore; it really means something. It's nice to know that mentality still exists in a new generation. I am now really proud of it" - Westwood said.

Catherine Deneuve in the Sixties and Seventies was the inspiration behind Vivienne Westwood’s collection of familiar, ladylike dresses and suits. It began with a group of coats — a belted prune and teal striped version, one in a camel and teal zebra stripe, and one in plain teal with an oversize rounded collar — and continued with Westwood’s signature draped creations in plaid, leather, wool and a Seventies floral print. It was all undeniably Westwood but occasionally felt a bit safe for a woman who is known for being fearless.