London Fashion Week AW16: Minki Cheng Presentation

According to the press release handed to me on entrance, Minki Cheng looked to retro entertainment of his generation for his AW16 collection, taking inspiration from his childhood memories of anime robots, warriors and guardians. He makes fantasy wearable in this modern world by mixing vibrant colours, complex textures and contrasting shapes. Of course with any art form, fashion too is open to interpretation and this is mine.

Walking into the Minki Cheng AW16 presentation, you feel instantly transported to another world. The whole room is full of the sound of eerie, moaning music which pulls you towards the scene, transfixed in a sort of trance. The magical collection is presented on a moss-like carpet, complete with twisting dark green reeds and the odd small Perspex dome, that could be interpreted as either the ocean floor or another planet’s surface. The collection is gradually revealed as one of the five models carefully steps off this fluffy carpet, making sure not to entangle her spindly silver heels as she goes, to make way for her comrade.

I am instantly taken by the first silhouette right in front of me: a silver, pleated maxi skirt complete with pink and orange fluffy ruffles that remind me of the coral reef paired with a simple but beautiful navy cropped jumper, also complete with coral reef ruffles. I soon realise that these super cute ruffles decorate many of the pieces in Minki Cheng’s AW16 collection, which mixes season appropriate metallics and fun pops of colour perfectly.

Of course the stand out piece is the egg-shaped metallic bomber jacket/dress, which comes in both bronze and turquoise and is simply worn zipped right up to a V neckline. Once again I see an ‘under the sea’ theme forming here with the wispy texture of the bomber reminding me of sea urchins.

The more tailoured pieces make up in shapes what they may lack in colour. The wide leg trousers fall beautifully from a high, pinched in waistline and the block line motif carefully breaks up what would otherwise be a rather overwhelming silhouette. The biker style jackets are perfectly cropped and have an interesting double zip feature at the front, which avoids the look of a slightly awkward jacket zipped up at one side as we have all experienced with this style of jacket. These looks are an inspired contrast from an otherwise leggy presentation featuring many miniskirts and zipped up dress-jackets.

Minki Cheng's AW16 collection is exquisite, interesting and I found it hard to leave the presentation - I was addicted. I love the metallics, varying textures and shapes and of course the quirky fluffy decorations. The accessories are certainly the icing on the cake with some models wearing one large hoop earring decorated with string, fluff and/or bells while one long leg warmer bridges the gap between mini mini hemlines and strappy metallic heels. 

Do you like Minki Cheng's AW16 collection? What is your interpretation?

Izzie x

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