Menswear Day SS12 Illustrated

Just over a week ago I was curled up in front of the computer in a foetal position slowly rocking and talking gibberish about designers and collections to myself in a darkened room. Once more I was overcome by the menswear sights seen and indeed unseen during an extremely hectic and action packed Menswear Day. The entire bulging schedule helped cause a sartorial stir or two whilst collectively flying the flag of great British menswear and tiring us all out out in the process. Over the last few seasons the day has continued to grow and evolve. Now, it close to outgrowing itself as presentations, catwalk shows, both on and off schedule and screenings all celebrated the exciting diversity of menswear design talent which uniquely exists in this capital of ours for SS12.

Now that the dust begins to settle on the day itself and I've suitably recovered from fashion flu, it is time to take another look at the day. Over the coming weeks we will take our time to explore and examine our favourite collections but first we'd like a quick visual reminder. Now, going to the shows is a wonderful experience but looking over catwalk photos afterwards can be a bit mind numbing. So, to help bring the day to life we enlisted the help of recent graduate Anne-Marie Jones (check out her blog if you can) to illustrate our favourite moments from LFW. From Lou Dalton managing to create wearable beauty from the harshness and desperation of the 1984 Miner's Strike and Matthew Bourne's menacing male ensemble in Swan Lake  to Patrick Grant introducing each of his wonderfully cut sportswear clad gentleman in the opulence of The Savoy. From the best MAN show ever to b Store's voyeuristic presentation of their idealised wardrobe of a modern English privileged colonial. There were so many highlights to choose from. After a great deal of thought, we selected our favourite looks and the talented Anne-Marie spent the weekend reimagining them in paint. Let the beauty of the season wash over you...

The immediacy of Anne-Marie's artwork brings back a real sense of each show and captures just why each look was selected. The day might have flashed right before my excited eyes but these moments (in addition to many not illustrated) confirmed how special the day was. If this has whet your appetite for more detail about the collections, prepare for more meatier posts in the coming weeks.