Becky Davies LFW S/S 2011 Round up

St. Tropez versus London Fashion Week started one day into the event at House of Holland. At the last round of shows, in February, St. Tropez CEO Michelle Feeney had commented on Henry Holland’s collection, mentioning how it “would be interesting to do something with him in the future.”

Fast-forward six months and there we were backstage with the popular designer. Starting off at a tan pantone pinnacle St. Tropez skin-perfecting expert Nichola Joss referenced Brooke Shields in Blue Lagoon with a deep, matte ‘Indian Summer’ colour for the beautifully edited House of Holland show.

However as the week progressed it became very clear that St. Tropez is not only about the tan but also a body perfect vision.

Next up was Erdem who chose to show his beautiful Ballet Russes-inspired collection within the gardens of a central London square. “Erdem came to me saying ‘I want to see the models ethereal, angelic and glowing,’’ said Michelle Feeney. ‘So these key words like ‘glow’ and ‘angelic’ are coming out. Designers are really getting it now.”

Those designers like the accomplished Roksanda Illincic and Marios Schwab, who are both famed for a finished and polished attention to detail. Such perfection requires equal attention to be placed on hair, make-up, the skin and the clothes.

“What I noticed today was those legs that had been perfected and those that hadn’t,’ said Michelle Feeney on the last day of London Fashion Week. ‘I was sitting in the Todd Lynn show, (which we didn’t do - but it was amazing and Rock n Roll). On the runway was this amazing tailoring, loads of legs and red [Christian] Louboutins. But, I think if you haven’t got leg perfect and body perfect, especially for S/S, it really shows up. So therefore there is a real need for the service that we are providing.”

Nichola Joss went for very similar body finishes at both Roksanda and Marios’s shows. She took a step back, “we are continually finding that this season is about a subtle and polished look,” she said.

But this is - of course - the Spring/Summer season; and St. Tropez has some amazing dark tans too, something that there is always an appetite for. So last up we bring you something a little different – a presentation by Louise Goldin. Louise is a huge fan of the tan, both personally and on the models she uses to show her collections. Projected onto a white wash wall in the St. Martin’s Lane Hotel, where Louise had invited guests to view her S/S11 collection, was a single image taken by Nick Knight. The girl is backlit in the shot, which showed off her very deep St. Tropez tan off a treat. Watch this space for further information on an exciting and futuristic film Nick Knight and Louise will be unveiling this October.

“Ex-Vogue beauty journalist Anne Marie Solomon said to me: ‘you told me three years ago that people would be wanting the skin perfecting, and you are right.’ It has taken us that long to get here, but we have now,” said Michelle Feeney.