LFW DAY 1: SASS & BIDE A/W 2011

Warriors and tribes may have been on Sarah-Jane Clarke and Heidi Middleton’s minds, but all their influences were filtered through a technicolour world. Their Autumn/Winter 2011 collection, entitled “Boogie & The History Maker” and based on a mix of bright and energetic shades, combined different inspirations, from Australian aboriginal art to African tribes, evoking a carefree summer rather than a cold grey winter.

The world is getting smaller and smaller, the design duo seemed to tell us, so why not borrowing the best crafts and textile patterns from various cultures and traditions and mix them together? The collection included black and white prints of feathers applied to dresses and suits; rope piping details that called to mind the necklaces worn by Samburu women; shawls and scarves casually wrapped around the models’s bodies; floor-length ikat skirts and tie-dyes matched with enamel feather necklaces; one shoulder dresses that gave the impression they were made using basket-weaving techniques and tops, skirts and dresses made of oversized multi-coloured scales. Apart from mapping out a new geography that destroyed cultural barriers and boundaries, Sass & Bide’s collection with its shades of bright orange and fuchsia also brought some much needed colour into a grey and cold London.

By Anna Battista

See London Fashion Week coverage of Sass & Bide here.