MEADHAM KIRCHHOFF!!!!

Again both of these designers met and studied at Central Saint Martins. Edward Meadham is English and Benjamin Kirchoff is French. Their designs are a feast for the eyes and it is difficult to focus on just one thing. There clothes are a feast of sumptuous colour and texture, with great skill and craftsmanship mixed with a grungey, DIY aesthetic. The clothes are a riot of different influences.

The designer's latest Collection for AW11 has cemented them as probably the most exciting designers at the moment. The show opened with a big set piece an installation made from chicken wire with flowers wrapped in foil, candles and crucifixes and ambiguous messages saying things like, 'love is revenge.' It is a shrine to Courtney Love and Riot grrrl, but it echoes those shrines you get on the side of a road when a cyclist has been struck down and killed.

Then out come the models dressed in an array of monochrome part folk costume part pinafore dresses, puff shirts and smocks, rosary beads, delicate embroidery, velvet bows, paneled jackets, layered lace petticoats...

The collection is called 'a cosmology of women.' The clothes make me think of weeping widows with the reference to death with the shrine and the black lace. There is definitely a Chanel vibe with the prim twin sets and shearling details. The embroidery is developed from 90s Riot Grrrl fanzines and apparently if you look really closely they are taken from little doodles...

 SS11 collection was a wonderful psychadelic journey of floral lace, tiny beads and acid brights...

The collection is full of childish glee, it is like a being in a bright computer game populated by Harajuka girls and my little Pony. I love the cut out details in the see through lace revealing tiny bits of flesh. The clothes are never revealing or overtly sexy they are too naive and childlike. I love the mixture op graphic prints on T shirts and jackets with added embellishment, they could reference 90s Versace or Lacroix but they lack the excess and glamour.

AW10 was a beautiful raid of a fairy princess's fancy dress box, albeit a grim fairytale in which she has been imprisoned. With dark undertones, the collection is very grungey you immediately think of Courtney love's stage outfits, they almost look a bit ripped an grubby but intentionally so, there is definitely a moth eateness about the clothes. The collection is inspired by Ballet Russes and Rajasthani traditional costume. There are heavy layers and bits flap open revealing a secret mohair top or some intricate embroidery. The style is a complete rejection of early 2000 starkness and signature pieces, it is an explosion of texture and deep colour. Edward Meadham describes the collection, saying, "It's ethnic, but with origins as far flung as Southern Spain and Southern India-t that means you will have couture level embroideries on our gowns, and some naive tinsel embroideries on our shrunken cashmere knits. We are doing lots of red, lots of fuschia and lots of glitter. We are creating beautiful Oscar gowns, long tea dresses, and 3/4 dressses, there is also an element of animal print and our signature tailoring. On the runway it will all be mashed together with veils. We want to do as many pretty, amazing things as possible. It's a total stream of consciousness." The collection has with street fashion than high fashion yet it displays such great skill. The sequins and pipe cleaners used are a nod to DIY aesthetic. The beautiful heavy, floaty veils and chiffons dresses that seem to billow down the catwalk like smoke, you have to see it to believe it...