WORD.

LONDON FASHION WEEK S/S2011 – RICHARD NICOLL

If a latex invitation in matte black and patent white didn't suggest a change in tone from Richard Nicoll, then the show's opener - the ever androgynous Jeanette, decked out in Berliner boiler suit and spraying weighty, seductive scent  - certainly did. An underlying, cerebral sensuality has always infiltrated Nicoll's shows, but - harnessing the free-reign abandon of glam-rock, Bowie bi-sexuality and handsome androgyny - the season's Seventies stride encouraged its emergence.

Seeking "minimal glamour and cautious celebration", an initially monochrome palette and characteristically clean, graphic cuts addressed such conflicting desires with pitch-perfect precision. The first exit - white cocktail dress, sheer top exposing black bra, undulating peplum over pleated skirt - kicked off a flight of layering which attained the volume and the fluidity redolent of the era, all the while lensed through an undeniably contemporary eye. Single shoulder dresses and pencil skirts, panelled bomber jackets and strong shouldered waistcoats, barely there blouses, body-hugging crystal encrusted gowns, bustier dresses visible beneath chiffon and second skin leather trousers too articulated a tussle between vigour and considered.

Adding an architectural dynamism, sculpted arcs of chiffon, coming first as collars encircling the neck before extending to the back and finally protruding from the chest broached an exoskeletal fragility picked up in prim, fishnet-knit cardigans, buttoned at the neck and worn over the shoulders. Moving from stark monochromatics to a passage of nude and salmon, pleated shorts, leather trousers and a reoccurring bomber jacket preceded a transition into flighty, flyway delicacy that informed cape-like panels falling to waist and floor length.

Sleek yet never cold, subversive yet never vulgar, familiar yet irrefutably modern, Richard Nicoll - in a single, deft sweep - reconciled the season's prevailing mood(s) whilst retaining his own original and vital vision.

Images via Style.com