Kane: Taking the Grandma Out of Crochet

The usual excitement accumulated before Christopher Kane. Arguably the only designer showing in London that you can’t second guess, his numerous Best Designer wins this year – including one from the ELLE Style Awards – brought a starry crowd in Samantha Cameron, Anna Wintour, Alexa, Olivia and Yasmin Le Bon.

Grandma is Kane’s unlikely heroine for autumn winter. Her erstwhile companion, the crochet patchwork blanket, has suddenly got cool. Kane imprinted its knit design on to black leather t-shirts and pencil skirts, and using it in its full, unadulterated glory on wrap skirts and cardigans. Under the plain, collarless coats he easily persuaded us of its charm and then some.

Kane then did a number on those pencil cases we loved at school, you know, with the squishy coloured liquid trapped between (we’ll think of a snappier name for them later). These were cut in squiggle shapes and snaked around necklines and waists on otherwise plain and beautifully tailored back dresses.

The splish-splashing of raindrops on the soundtrack was accompanied by a series of blue/green sequin droplet and gauze dresses, shimmering like water above stack heeled Mary-Janes.

Another Kane show in which the tailoring and cut is sublime but the detail is kind of crazy. Just like Grandma.

See the complete collection here