The concept of ‘Power Dressing’ means something different to everyone. In popular culture, it often rings synonymous with that hefty-shouldered, Working Girl silhouette made famous by Melanie Griffith and on Wall Street circa 1988; and yet, for designers this London Fashion Week, the term told a very different tale. Women, womanhood, femininity and feminism played muse to many an SS19 collection this season, with designers lining up to discuss and interpret the theme’s myriad nuances in ways that feel contemporary and relevant to these tumultuous times.


Roksanda, SS19

Roksanda Ilincic’s battlecry was sounding long before we took to our seats; it ricocheted around the walls of Frida Escobedo’s Serpentine Pavilion (the Mexican architect this year made history by being the first woman to single-handedly undertake the commission), and chimed in both melody and message with Nina Simone whose familiar vocals vibrated through the space. Dispensing with archaic preconceptions of what it means to ‘power dress’, Roksanda relied on soft yet structured tailoring and the ethereally artful gowns and separates for which she is well-known and loved. Her palette was neither showy nor shy, and instead hummed comfortingly with warm russets, savoury pistachios and sweeter inflections of flossy pastels and creamy accents. 


Roksanda, SS19

“Janis Ian told it very well/ Janis Joplin told it even better/ Billie Holiday even told it even better,/ We always, we always, we always have a story,” Nina sang. As for Roksanda? For all of us who bore witness, Ilincic’s was a narrative of modern womanhood – individuality, strength, empowerment and occasional fragility. She leafed through the pages of the tales that each and every one of us live with and live out, and recounted them all with empathy and elegance. 


Roksanda, SS19

Where Roksanda silently entreated us to absorb her collection’s motive via sensorial osmosis, Emilia Wickstead was leaving nothing to chance, spelling out her intentions in black and white, plain as day: “A late 1980s feminist fairytale. Women in the foreground.” And by God, were they! 

Perhaps Emilia was equally as fed up with the somewhat ‘society darling’ label that is often slapped onto her brand as she has been with issues of gender inequality and imbalance of late, since her authoritative SS19 collection made leaps and bounds to the counter side of both. Between serious collars that splayed out over the wide lapels of two-piece tailoring and exquisitely contoured dresses that each came flanked with a briefcase, this was a runway that meant Business with a capital ‘B’.


Emilia Wickstead, SS19

Far from jeopardising Wickstead’s signature romantic oeuvre, which remained in reliable supply, these stronger intonations brought a newly pragmatic layer to the conversation. A “fairytale” this may have been, but it’s one for which the roots were grounded in reality.


Emilia Wickstead, SS19

Earlier in the week, we met with Levi Palmer and Matthew Harding of palmer//harding to preview and discuss their then-upcoming show for SS19. Greeted by a floor-to-ceiling moodboard of complex female protagonists from across film and literature, we listened as the duo spoke of the women who inspire them on a daily basis – driven, executive, informed and rich with life experience. Women of substance. 


palmer//harding, SS19

And so, it was in a similar key to Roksanda and Emilia Wickstead – with whom they, serendipitously, shared the day’s schedule – that Levi and Matthew staged a potent runway of dynamic shirting (well, it wouldn’t be a palmer//harding show without it!) and double-take construction. Is it a dress? Are they separates? Each mixed message echoed the duality of the woman that the two had taken as their muse for the season. Sure, she has a story... But she’s damn well going to tell it how she pleases!


In case you missed it, compare this to what we learned at London Fashion Week Men's earlier this year.