Fall 2013 London

The Best of New York Fashion Week: Overwhelmed by all the fashion week coverage out there? We'll make it easy. Check out our 10 favorite collections, the 13 most critically acclaimed shows, and the top 10 trends you need to know. Listen While You Look: Get the full ambiance of New York fashion week with our top 15 tracks from the runways. And Don't Forget About London! Click away to see our 10 fav collections, the critics' darlings, and the biggest fall trends from the fashion week across the pond. Kim Kardashian Lands a DuJour Kover: The magazine's co-editor Keith Pollack on what it was like to work with the pregnant star and whether they had problems pulling clothes for her.

Burberry debuted their new nail polish line in a sultry dark, classic red. More specifically, in oxblood. And it wouldn't be a Burberry show without a trench coat or two to match. It wasn't long before we noticed the color showing up elsewhere in London.

Vinyl, PVC, and latex clothing usually send one's mind straight to the gutter. Or to a vision of a catsuit. It's certainly not versatility, wearability, or comfort. I know it's not just me. However, fall/winter 2013 is putting a spin on these preconceptions, with plenty of bright, shiny, and kinky nuggets.

London fashion week is officially a wrap, but before we say "Cheerio" to that city and "Buon giorno" to Milan, let's check out some of the beauty looks from Erdem to Preen and everything in between. Proceed, but please mind the gap.

The whirlwind five days that is London fashion week is now behind us, and it left in its wake some pretty amazing collections for Fall 2013. From Brit heritage brands to upstart up-and-comers, click through to see (in no particular order) our 10 favorite London collections.

Playing the name game in London is far from easy: So many cool young designers, so many unusual names, and only a week to make sense of them all. It’s largely due to the aversion many Brit design talents have to being crafted into the sort of the fashion celebs we adore stateside. No worries; the clothes spoke volumes for themselves, as London dialed down the quirked, and turned out one of the most sophisticated seasons in recent years. See for yourself!

The last of the London show reviews and galleries are in! And on we go to Milan. Check out Sophia Webster and Roksanda Ilincic.

For only having been on her own in the biz for a few seasons now, Sophia Webster has certainly built up a strong brand identity. Her playful, quirky designs have earned her an almost fanatical customer base.

Maybe it was the sun or the uncharacteristically warm London day but spring was definitely in the air on the last day of London fashion week--despite the fact that we were seeing fall 2013 collections. Right after we took in Simone Rocha's feminine, pink collection, we strolled over to The Savoy, where Roksanda Ilincic showed her fall 2013 collection in the hotel's ballroom. Ilincic had affixed carpets of varying size and shades of pinks to the space's already gorgeous, elaborately trimmed walls. It was a hint of what was to come.

With Erdem and Christopher Kane all grown up and in the big leagues, London's new crop of up-and-coming designers are already making a name for themselves. Simone Rocha has been on the industry's radar since her first solo show in 2011 and this season (which is only her fourth) she proved she's definitely a force to be reckoned with.

Emilio de la Morena’s show today was full of the staples we’ve come to expect this Fall 2013 season--pleated skirts, heavy fabrics, oversized overcoats, and masculine trousers. There was a boxy flannel jumpsuit, some super sexy cut-outs, and a hefty dose of boiled wool. But what set this collection apart was the innovation de la Morena applied to these seemingly basic pieces.

It may be the shortest of all the fashion "weeks," but LDN sure knows how to pack a punch in the form of spectacular personal style. This is the home of the Spice Girls (OK and punk), after all.

A ghostly Kristen McMenamy opened Giles's fall 2013 show in a silk white maxi dress with ballooning sleeves, which flounced down the runway like a v

For his London runway debut, Tom Ford sent out a “Cross Cultural Multi Ethnic” collection—-his words, not mine-—filled with patchwork fur coats, zebra-print gowns, exploding cartoon-punch star bombers (POW!), and embroidered floral everything. It was excessive. My split-second reaction after looking at the images on WWD last night? "Wow, that's gross."

Erdem got in touch with his dark side this season--quite literally--with an almost entirely-black collection.

It's too bad Christopher Bailey's fall 2013 Burberry show missed Valentine's Day by only about four days. Dubbed 'Trench Kiss' by the designer, it was the most romantic, loved-up collection we've seen from the designer. Perhaps it was a love note to all of Bailey's adoring fans--the front row included A-listers like Douglas Booth, Olivia Palermo, Melanie Laurent, Michelle Dockery, Rita Ora, Freida Pinto, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, and Kate Beckinsale. There were hearts and leopard prints, which gave a quirky, girly twist to the brand's signature trenches and daywear.

J.W. Anderson’s show was entitled “Semiology of the Self.” Now we don’t want to talk semantics, but this had us a little intrigued. The show notes were just as complex, describing the show as “an examination of cacophonic chemistry, reconciling opposites through textural bipolarness in order to achieve hypernormality, the new normal.”

Has hell frozen over? Sunday at two of London's most redoubtable print masters, Mary Katrantzou and Jonathan Saunders, bright digital prints were not at display. (Boobies were though, at the later.) Also of note were the grown-up womanly looks at Mulberry and Preen as well as at L'Wren Scott's UK debut, where look seven (a cobalt wool dress with gold collar) premiered on the runway after it premiered on Nicole Kidman at the Stoker premiere.

Jonathan Saunders may have originally caught London's eye with his bold silk-screened prints, but in recent seasons the designer has been charming the industry with a quieter, cleaner, and more architecturally-based aesthetic. This season, Saunders showed perhaps his least prints-heavy collection yet. When there were prints they were subtle: sheer monochromatic spotted fabric--on black and red frocks, and a vine pattern in blue and in red.

While Mary Katrantzou and Jonathan Saunders may be stepping away from the prints, Peter Pilotto is not. Designers Peter Pilotto and Christopher De Vos pushed their signature leitmotif--bold patterns and prints--forward with a collection that was as interesting as it was consistent.

Everything about the fall 2013 show announced: Christopher Kane has made it to the big leagues.

If there's one item to invest in come fall 2013, make it a cape--or at least that's the case that Schwab's most recent collection makes.

The Paul Smith show was an exercise in color blocking--primarily in navy, fuchsia, and burnt orange. Loose wool trousers (there were many in this collection) were incredibly well cut, as were blazers and overcoats. The things Sir Paul does well, he does very well.

As we entered the Royal Opera House for the Matthew Williamson show, there was definitely something special in the air: The entire venue had been scented with roses, in a nod to the floral prints that adorned silk shirts and pleated full skirts in some of the first looks.