Fun Loving Henry Holland Strikes Again

You may have noticed a banner hovering above the blog for the past week, offering you a chance to win a shopping spree at House of Holland… Well this is because I have partnered up with the label to bring you the best from the AW15 show.

Love it or hate it, House of Holland is one of the only shows during the five days of London Fashion Week where the audience seems to have fun. Henry Holland has developed a crowd of adoring fans over the years, thanks to his colourful designs and friendly demeanour. Most of London’s it-girls are his BFFs, from Alexa to Aggy, the man sure knows how to surround himself. Of course most of them were there on Saturday evening to discover his brand new collection for AW15 which he described as “trustafarian street urchins“. As the models walked, sorry glided along the travelator to the sound of “Uptown Funk” *crowd goes wild*, I tried to abstract myself from the general atmosphere to actually look at the clothes. It can sometimes be difficult during a show to ignore the entire mise-en-scène as it is such an integral part of the performance, but I like to try. After all, once the show is over, these clothes will need to be sold – and worn. 

So imagine the scene – the audience is transfixed, dancing in their seats. In the middle of that, here I am, getting into a trance-like state, trying my hardest to block out the tunes, forget that the models are on a travelator (OMG! LOL!) and concentrate on the design. His trademark  overblown houndstooth check and bright colour blocking were there, styled with chunky stompers (perhaps an homage to his obvious love of the nineties?). The opening look reminded me of his granny blanket collection – there is always an element of nana party in Holland’s designs, something a crazy old nana would wear to go play backgammon with her nana pals. Taken separately, some of the pieces would actually make quite interesting additions to an existing wardrobe: I am thinking about the printed knits, silk bomber jacket, bags and even some of the Mongolian fur items. This season, the ever innovative House of Holland has teamed up with Metail to allow you to try on and pre-order the collection straight off the runway As for the rest… I let you discover it below!