LFW AW10: Matthew Williamson

For once, it was not business as usual at Matthew Williamson. Structured and cocooned coats in sumptuous tweed with flouncy fox fur arms concealed the tell-tale Matthew flashy print, peeking through the layers and lending the collection an air of, dare I say it, evolution. It's not that Matthew has entirely crawled out of the primordial ooze of explosive color which constitutes the essence of his brand (as I already said, flashes of his instantly recognizable showy mini dresses and blindingly bright, heavily embellished chiffon and silk frocks for the tanned and toned on the red carpet are still there aplenty) but he seems to have finally put one foot on the shore, once again building on his aesthetic, growing and experimenting, after multiple seasons where it felt like our boy had plateaued.

While his flirtation with color blocked separates (a magenta wool coat, suede peach slouchy jacket worn over a tangerine silk jersey draped evening column) isn't exactly avant-garde in the traditional sense of the word, it is indeed something new for Matthew. Whilst he may have pared it down to cater to newfound BFF, ultimate Park Avenue Princess Olivia Palermo (squarely affixed in the front row, sigh I love her), with his deployment of boiled wools in (gasp!) muted tones with the tell-tale prints lurking beneath every seemingly demure layer, managed to do so in a way which adheres to his designer DNA. And that's what it's all about to survive the rat race against mother nature that is the fashion industry: survival of the fittest, evolving what works for you personally in harmony with what works for the world around you. Homo erectus cannot survive on prints alone, hurrah!