Alexandra Groover A/W 09

This afternoon I dragged my over-tired body out to the first day of London Fashion Week. Despite rounding up a nice collection of tickets for this season I have only chosen to attend two due to my severe lack of funds and the fact I hate commuting to London. One of the shows I decided to check out was Alexandra Groover's 'Black Label' collection. The press release states that the use of only black is Groover's signature as she "sees colour as a distraction from her focus on silhouette and sculptural shape making." Hmmm.....

Many people who know me are aware that I tend to live most of my life dressed nearly head to toe in black, and so I was excited to see what Groover had to offer and whether she would be able to produce an exciting, catwalk-worthy collection despite the lack of colour.

The show began, fourty-five minutes after the scheduled time, with a black and white projection of a model twirling around like a little girl before the first model took to the catwalk, slow moving with ambient music in the background. Not the type of high-energy show I usually prefer, however this gave a chance to look at the clothing in detail.

I have to say I wasn't blown away by the collection. Inspired by natural science with references to seashells and jellyfish, Groover certainly showed a different approach to clothing structure. The most inspiring pieces were a shell shaped hooded jacket, a round, puff-ball type dress and a shell shaped dress collar. I have to say the rest of the collection, although simple and wearable, did not leave me thinking 'wow' like I did with, for example, Topshop Unique last season. As much as I love black clothing, I just wanted to throw some colour into the show, or to add some more dynamic fabrics. The collection seemed a bit like a collection of toiles.

All in all, in my opinion, the show was 'so so'. Apart from a few select pieces that stood out I felt that the rest of the collection simply 'filled the gaps'. However, I loved the theme behind the collection, and the fact that the models twirled around instead of the traditional posing at the end of the catwalk :P.





Elle x