Amanda Wakeley AW16 encapsulates all you could want from the designer brand
At the opening of her 26th year in the designing business, Amanda Wakeley’s beautiful label, based on the ethos of ‘pounds per wear’ – showing no compromise to wearing gorgeous clothing every day and night –showcased luxury lifestyle in demurely sexy and sophisticated style with a consistent utilitarian twist. This seasoned contemporary warrior trademark identifies the reality of professional women balancing a dynamic, multifarious lifestyle in perfect elegant harmony: the most powerful ambassador being its Founder and Creative Director, Amanda Wakeley herself, reflecting the aesthetic of a her modern, diverse life, making her clothes in her own image – a quality which has earned her a loyal customer base of women who trust and love the brand.
An entirely self-taught artisan, Amanda Wakeley launched her eponymous designer brand in 1990 with the opening of a boutique studio outlet in the heart of illustrious fashion district, Chelsea, London. Since then, with the success of her signature reinvention of the LBD (Little Black Dress) and timelessly chic effortlessly glamorous styling of her occasion and evening wear, almost a paired down, discreet lavishness of a haut couture gown and a favourite of the world’s most stylish women, including Diana, Princess of Wales, arguably the most famous woman in the world at the time. In the 2010 New Year Honours, Amanda was appointed an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace, for her services to the British fashion industry and role as the funding co-chair of Fashion Targets Breast Cancer. Amanda’s accolades also include three British Fashion Awards for Glamour in 1992, 1993 and 1996, and, rather in keeping with her brand identity, in 2012 she received the NatWest Everywoman Ambassador Award.
A close friend of Wakeley, honest, and confessional artist, Tracey Emin, described this designer as straightforwardly functional – an idiosyncrasy that is carried into her fashion: this AW16 show invitation, an unassumingly minimal silver keying in the shape of a locked bungee cord with a card with a marked seat number attached, perhaps an reflection of the reserved wrap around sashes and twice encircled waist belts which echoed throughout the collection.
Her followers share a natural thirst for classic pieces, but with a cutting edge resilience that suggests they balance work with health and play. This collection founded distinct sport-luxe details which were functional but with a luxurious twist. As a firm believer in slow fashion in the sense of creating timeless pieces that are versatile, enabling you to were them all the time and weigh their value in ‘pounds per wear’, Wakeley resourcefully crafted loungewear pieces in smartly cut, precious materials: mink hooded sweatshirts were styled with leather jogging bottoms, alongside statement collarless, vintage bomber jackets with racing stripes down the arm. The reinvented jogging bottom pinched ankle cut was a prevailing feature that revealed a new luxe sportswear that is empowered and effortlessly chic and perhaps a recapture of a casual style of trouser transformed into a fashion that is now tasteful and chic.
Fur adorned many a piece in this AW16 collection; there’ll be no concern for the cold decked in these decorous sheaths offering warmth and protection as one braves the elements armoured in these lavishly crafted amorous embellishments. Modern warrior women is the image she conjures with baby blue and black woollen and velveteen coats with furry cocooning sleeves and fur trimmings on elongated muff-wrists of camel great-coat. Each lovely un-cluttered coat cinched at the waist with multi-wrap ribbon sashes and double bound suede belts, creating a classic feminine silhouette: it is a staple that you won’t find a button in sight, Wakeley despises them. Garments were swaddled in fox fur neck warmers, sashed and scarfs, luxurious touches that hint at a woman with authority, a determined and industrious professional liking to an archaic metaphor of a huntress, as inspired by the Medieval Nordic, exacting in her execution, and sporting her achievements. This is a collection that conveys exactly what The Wakely Woman is about.
Famed for her glamour fuelled shows, her glamorous evening and cocktail dresses and accessories christening her “clean glam” signature, and, of course, her constant restyling the LBD Wakeley showed no limit to the luxury in her finely disciplined AW gowns. Veiled in lustrous swathes of delicately draped, undulated and rippling fabric, with a mindfully placed slice in the front to create movement and a sexy streak of leg, bared from the mid-thigh in a clean single break, her alluring gowns are nothing short of spectacular.
Amanda Wakeley has also developed a strong and rapidly growing presence in day-and-work wear, including chic day-dresses and two piece ensembles, impeccable tailoring, including the reinvented suit trouser, and neat knitwear curated by Amanda down to the smallest details.
All in all, with her classicism of glamour in her frocks and gowns; vintage, primal resourcing of leathers, skins and texturally luscious furs; and her instinctual modernity of elite sportswear. Suffice to say that Amanda Wakeley is a designer of timeless, clean, glamorous, dexterous and versatile.
This AW16 read-to-wear game is surely as powerful and admirable as her choice couture-worthy gowns.
All fit for a heroine.
