Belstaff was a presentation and bright and early for a Sunday I was there at 8:30. First we were assigned a model and briefed on our looks. My look was pretty easy and since this was a presentation the model would have plenty of time to get ready and there would be no quick change. The look was basically leather pants and a t-shirt. The shoes were a bit more challenging. They needed to be laced in a specific way and able for the pants to be tucked into them when fastened. After hair and makeup my model needed a quick bathroom and food break, afterall he was going to be standing for the next 2 hours. When he returned he got dressed. There was a run through to decide on placing of the models and then a briefing by the designers/creative director. And it was ready to begin, piece of cake!
The inspiration for the SS17 collection was Steve McQueen in the 1970s. There is a definite western vibe as well as a racing vibe. I really like the leather trousers tucked into thick socks, it feels very rustic to me. I totally see this guy in the dessert with his white, worn, t-shirt and neck scarf. He has a bit of scruf (what you get when you haven’t shaved for a few days) and his hair is unruly from the motorcycle helmut, because afterall the Belstaff guy definitely rides a motorcycle. Racing stripes on the jackets and leather jumpsuits is a nob to the racing industry, which was pulled from the McQueen film This is the first time that Belstaff has combined menswear and womenswear into one show. I’m not so crazy about the ladieswear. I don’t love the racing stripes on the short leather jackets,
Here are some photos I took from the presentation. As you can see the set was amazing! The space was actually just a convention building, but Belstaff really transformed it. Belstaff always does a great job with transporting you to a place and time with how they present their collections. There was also a man outside on a motorcycle doing tricks wearing Belstaff, it just really set the mood as you entered the venue.
Next up was KTZ! I was really looking forward to this show, it is generally one of the more over the top shows as oppose to ready to wear in regards to the clothes and I was exciting to see what they had put together, what the theme would be, would there be lots of womenswear mixed in? Okay so the Belstaff presentation ended around 1:45 and we were meant to be at KTZ for 2:00, but they knew we were going to be a bit late, there were about 9 of us from LCS that were dressing at both shows so we all went over together. After rushing to get there, we arrived around 2:15. When we arrived, and I’m going to be quite candied with my experience dressing this show, no one knew what was going on, or maybe they did, but they didn’t tell us. We were told to put our belongs, including our mobile phones, in a separate room, the room was towards the back and it was literally a small room with everyone's bags thrown in, no security, nothing. We were not allowed to take pictures as they were afraid that the collection would leak before the show, which I totally get, but I also heard that if they saw you with your mobile phone even out, regardless of what you were doing on it, then you would have to leave. I took my phone with me, along with my license and cards. After we had put everything away, we came back to the dressing area and were just standing around waiting to be told what to do. We were told that we were in the way a few times and not very nicely, and then we were asked to move to another area, which we all did. After sitting in this other area for 15 minutes we were asked to go and sit outside. On this particular day in London it had been down pour raining speratically and was quite cold for June. So I was not too excited about having to sit outside, there was also a bit of hesitation when asked if we could get our coats from the other room where they asked us to put them, with a response of ‘really, is it so cold outside’. It was now around 3:45 and we were meant to have the models dressed and ready for a dress rehearsal at 4:00, the show would start at 5:00. After sitting outside for about a half hour, we were told to come back in and we were told to take a look from the rail and line up according to the number of that look and then, in order, find a spot in the room to get the model ready. There were 3 people per model, which is insane, 1 person is generally enough, 2 people, maybe, if the look complicated, but 3 people? It was too crowded, and then that makes it difficult to get dressed and for any changes. They did end up doing a run through, but it was right before the show and then the show started late, I think around 5:15.
The outfit my model wore was basically track pants and sweatshirt. There was a lot of silhouette details that you can’t really see with just looking at the clothes, so it is nice to be able to really look at the clothes and see the movement. KTZ definitely pays attention the details. Which is one of the reason that I love dressing their shows. But for SS17 I was not super impressed, I don’t particularly like the logo printed stuff. I loved the sheer constilation pieces, they were amazing, and I thought the structure of the outwear was really nice, but the rest was just okay. I would never dress a KTZ show again. The production team was rude and disorganized, we are free, skilled labour and there was no thank you at the end of the show, no appreciation. We were not allowed to eat the food that they provided, or allowed to have bottled water in the dressing space. It was just not pleasant and I gained nothing from the experience. It's really unfortunate because the clothes are beautiful.
I don't have any photos to show you because we were not allowed to take photos, below though I have put some of my favourite looks. To view more images from the collection you can go here.
