Lauren Cochrane 

Anya Hindmarch gives lessons in fun on London fashion week’s final day

Googly eyes, stickers and slogans inspired by school days adorn handbags as upcoming designers also show their collections
  
  

Anya Hindmarch
Googly eyes and slogan stickers were the order of the day at the playful Anya Hindmarch show. Photograph: Samir Hussein/Getty Images Photograph: Samir Hussein/Getty Images

Giant neon teacups, a revolving catwalk, dancers dressed as skeletons and Jeff Koons-style oversized teddy bears at Anya Hindmarch's show on Tuesday provided a welcome tonic on the last day of London fashion week.

The show, for the accessory designer's spring/summer 2015 collection, turned a weary front row into giggling schoolgirls, which was no accident: along with the theatrics, this was a collection inspired by Hindmarch's school days.

The first bag set the tone – a sensible tote covered with colourful embossed designs that looked like stickers more at home on schoolbooks. Other designs featured motifs from the digital universe: a shopper with oversized googly eyes found on the emoticon keyboard and another with a drawing of that Instagram favourite, a pair of hands making a heart symbol.

As an accessories designer, she kept the clothes simple – models wore identical white boilersuits and jewel-coloured high heels. All the better to make the bags the main event – something, admittedly, tricky to pull off when halfway through the show, the catwalk spun around and models emerged in neon teacups, with those dancing skeletons. Witty slogans decorated bags too – "fashion has feelings too"; "I love it! What is it?" The pencil-shaped pencil case familiar to classrooms was remade into a high-fashion item.

If the staging was like a teenager trip to the fairground, then, the products referenced school the day after.

Backstage post-show, Hindmarch was dressed, by contrast to the playful colour of her designs, in a tasteful grey blazer. She said she sees the show as a way to "explain what has been going on in my head for the past six months. Because we're accessories, going up and down the runway isn't enough. It's about showcasing the idea behind the collection".

Hindmarch has cultivated her business by walking the line between quirky and classic design. She says the two work in harmony. This season's designs using the motifs of the kitchen cupboard – including Frosties' Tony the Tiger and the stripes of Daz washing powder – have sold out five times over before hitting shops but, equally, "people also really want to buy a beautiful black bag".

A bit irreverent and approachable, she described her aesthetic as "the everyday, but beautiful. That's my thing."

The designer, who was appointed a trade ambassador by David Cameron in 2010, always keeps the commercial central, despite runway high jinks. The stickers on the bags are leather-friendly and available to buy for £45. Sticker shops will follow at Selfridges later in the year. In Hindmarch's world, fun and frolics on the catwalk have to translate directly to what's instore.

Fashion East, on Tuesday afternoon, shows off designers at the start of their careers. This season, Helen Lawrence and Louise Alsop were joined by Ed Marler, a Central Saint Martins graduate whose designs could be described as a noughties answer to John Galliano. Distinctly maximalist in mood, both menswear and womenswear was on view; most models wore crowns, men wore ballgowns and corsets and, echoing the couture tradition, a bride closed the show. A confident debut from a talent to watch.

The London shows finished on Tuesday, with the focus turning to Milan fashion week from Wednesday onwards.

 

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