5 Style Lessons We Learned From London Fashion Week AW19

By Colette Fitzpatrick

We don’t advocate buying whole new wardrobes or suggest impoverishing yourself to buy designer pieces (though if you can invest, we always say to do it wisely!) and fashion week can seem like a faraway thing with little to do with our own lives. However, you can definitely take some inspiration and styling tips from what was sent down the runways. Here are the things we learned at London that we’ll be incorporating into our wardrobes in one way or another come next season…

1. Dude, we’re continuing to dress like ladies

Ladylike looks with polished finishes, dainty bags, historic silhouettes, longer lengths, lace, frills, flounces…this aesthetic has taken over in the past couple of seasons and with the coolest of Insta It-Girls snapping it and the hippest of celebrities rocking Molly Goddard, Batsheva Dresses, Rodarte, and The Vampire’s Wife on red carpets, it’s only gaining more and more momentum. This vibe was seen once again in London at the likes of Gayeon Lee, Shrimps, and Simone Rocha. So, pop on your hairbands, grab your little bag and perfectly matching shoes, make sure you’re starched and neat and present a ladylike facade to the world – even if, like us, you’re anything but.

2. The more, the merrier (layers, that is)

Good news, elevated layering was all over the place and that’s ideal for the unpredictable winters coming our way via (not so good) climate change. Take cues from Victoria Beckham’s longline boots disappearing under midi hems, Rejina Pyo’s luxe hoodies under big old coats, Burberry’s sporty combos, and our very own Katie Ann McGuigan’s masterful mixing of colours, textures, and patterns to create magic.

3. Big & bigger than life hats = Perfect cover-ups for bad hair days

If your hair just isn’t doing it or you’re on day three between washes (can’t say I know that one, personally, as my fine hair won’t allow anything over than daily scrubs) in AW19, fear not! Big-ass hats and hats with a personality are here to save the day, as seen at JW Anderson, Matty Bovan, Asai, and Xu Zhi. It’s totally a fashion statement and not a disguise, promise.

4. Luxurious finishes and textures you want to roll around in

Leathers like butter, pillowy silks, flawless faux furs, elaborate embroideries…the finishes are luxe for AW19 and we can totally embrace that…literally. We just want to spend next season tracing the rich embroidery on Ryan Lo’s dresses and coats, feeling the second skin that is the leather at 16Arlington, burrowing into the faux at Xu Zhi, embracing the satin and velvet at Alexa Chung, and swishing around in the dreamy silks of NATALIEBCOLEMAN.

5. Keeping hair and makeup pretty simple

Loose curls, hair tied back in ribbons, blushy cheeks, dewy skin; there were lots of simple hair and minimal, pretty makeup looks. We love dramatics, for sure, but the easy-to-accomplish, naturalistic, and lovely looks that were at the likes of Simone Rocha, Gayeon Lee, Markus Lupfer, NATALIEBCOLEMAN, and Jamie Wei Huang mean that our barely-styled hair and five-minute faces might actually seem cool next season.

With winter only ending now, it’s hard to look forward to the approach of the wet and cold again but when it looks this cute, it doesn’t seem all that bad…

For more fashion features, check out our coverage of NATALIEBCOLEMAN AW19 or our coverage at Seoul Fashion Week last year…