Bobby Abley AW18

Photography by Nicholas Andrews. 

Last season Bobby Abley showed that he was able to deliver a message whilst also entertaining. For autumn 2018, we were invited to Bobbyland, where everyone is welcome. 

Fun fashion is what Bobby Abley most stands for. On watching his shows, we know that we are going to see colour and clothes unlike those presented by other designers through the rest of fashion week. That sense of fun has been cleverly used to show support and criticism. For spring, Abley sent models down the catwalk with slogans offering an opinion on Brexit (“Legal Alien” and “Foreign”). This season he turned his attention to gender neutrality and the battle for social equality. 

Its a tall order, and Abley, forever a hit with the famous was able to call in some famous faces to help him. Look one saw rapper KillASon cockily catwalking to his own tune “Hottest In My Town” decked out in a jewel lined, dark blue wool coat and low slung trousers. In six small seasons, the designer has made a name for himself with collections that created a hallmark for cartoon references - Disney, Star Wars, Teletubbies and Power Rangers to name just a few.

For autumn, he looked to Looney Tunes which meant heavy furs, grills, rabbit ear bandanas and the classic neoprene sweatshirt in the familiar face of Bugs Bunny. Elsewhere, we saw gender-neutral dungarees, boxy and oversized outerwear and knitwear. The most memorable look was a Tweety Pie, in a bright yellow maribou sweater that had literally every camera in the building flashing. Its surprising that he is constantly able to draw these references in a clever way, and constantly play homage to Christina Aguilera (the title of one of her tracks “Cant Hold Us Down” appeared as a slogan on one of the sweaters in bubblegum shades of baby blue, bubblegum pink and lilac). 

The last look and the last show on the LFWM calendar reminded us that fashion can and should be fun. 

Explore further at Bobby Abley.