All 24 of Edward Meadham and Benjamin Kirchhoff's looks lined up at the catwalk exit before marching in an orderly boarding-school fashion down the runway, round the creepy car-crash-style shrine placed in the middle of the catwalk and right back up to the exit again so quickly that the it was near impossible for the fashion writers and photographers to capture on the furiously fast-paced collection.
Set to an eerie soundtrack (because what macabre situation is complete without the Psycho's 'shower scene' noise...) the collection featured the prominent use of a typically haunting colour palette - black, white and red and the contradictory use of soft, sheer chiffons paired with heavier fabrics and chunky cable-knit socks. Embroidered with tiny childhood relics like lipsticks and dogs, the collection was brought alive by pinafores, buttoned-up shirts and innocently girly bows and blonde curls (given that edge by the ominous black roots). The 'Cosmology of Women' (which also featured menswear) just sceamed 'psychotic schoolchildren chic', and brought a welcome change from all the sci-fi inspired looks we'd seen at almost every other LFW show.
Yeah, we know, witchcraft is a popular and often cliched theme for the Autumn/Winter season but Meadham Kirchhoff gave it a refreshing new edge with their hauntingly nostalgic take on all those horror stories set in spooky old English boarding schools that your big brother used to tell you when you were little. For all those missing the quirky sense of British eccentricity that Luella brought to the fashion week stage, fear not: Meadham Kirchhoff have arrived and they're making sure that trend-rejecting offbeat fashion is alive and well. We couldn't be happier, well, unless one of those cutely creepy witchy hats decides to fly its way over to us this upcoming season!
words: Navneet Gill
photos: style.com
