In a move that signaled the beginning of another episode of the ’80s déjà vu fest that has been playing all over London, Naomi Campbell opened Julien Macdonald’s show strutting her remarkably buff stuff in a white, cutout, rhinestone-studded swimsuit. Macdonald loves glamour, gorgeous girls, eye-socking color, vivid prints, high heels and big hair. Sound familiar? Maybe the thought of the upcoming Gianni Versace retrospective at the Victoria & Albert Museum inspired him. Whatever the source, the designer’s collection seemed a frank homage to those carefree days when supermodels prowled the runways wearing nothing very much to maximum possible effect.
Macdonald worked through grommet-studded jersey and leather pieces, strapless, frilly eyelet looks, and many variations on the theme of microscopically short asymmetric dresses (previous incarnations of which have proved a publicity godsend to many grateful London It girls).
The designer threw himself into a carnival spirit with multicolored print chiffons topped by outsize headdresses and shoulder pieces made of Caribbean flowers and vegetation—it’s summer, after all. Even if his glammed-up nostalgia isn’t to everyone’s taste, you have to credit Macdonald his relentless determination to show fashion a jolly good time.
