House of Holland's grooving grime opens London Fashion Week

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Sep 14, 2019

Henry Holland keeps on getting better. Proof of which was his excellent House of Holland show, staged before a warm Saturday sunset in Gasholder Park, in King’s Cross, North London.

Eurostar regulars will recognize the development, located inside a series of former gas towers, just as one’s train enters St Pancras station.
 
Fewer people in London, however, will recognize Holland’s latest partner, Xtep, a giant Chinese sports brand. But it’s a technical marque that clearly knows what it is doing. Xtep has sponsored more than 1,000 running competitions, with 5 million participants covering 100 million kilometers, read the concise program notes. A reminder of another arrow in Henry’s quiver; he studied media as a boy and instinctively knows how to intrigue an editor.

The partnership collection – named City Runner – featured natty tie-dye prints in shades of acidic Ribena and funky spaceship blues used in seductive tube dresses. Craftily cut bodycon nylons with lots of reflective stripes also looked great, as did a series of Dayglo mash-up sneakers.
 
“If I can’t dance I don’t want to be part of your revolution,” stressed Holland, quoting the great anarchist, essayist and founder of Mother Earth, Emma Goldman. And there can be little doubt that this clobber was made for clubbing – from the dégradé cheetah-print cocktails with spaghetti straps to the acid-dyed denim dresses with Eisenhower jacket tops. 
 
A really great swear-laden electronic soundtrack of what British hipsters refer to as grime music added to the moment, as the youthful cast walked around the circular lawn, at the center of which stood a giant metal mock-futurist silver sphere.
 
The whole show captured the ability of quick-thinking young Brit designers like Holland to turn cool ideas into commerce and coin. Something that defeated most of his parents’ generation.

Of course, a century ago one could hardly eat properly in London, before the entrance into Europe led to a marvelous culinary revolution in this country. Another reason fashionistas – who love a good restaurant – loathe Brexit.
 
So, in a sense, House of Holland is British fashion’s equivalent of what the French call "Gastro Bistro," meaning easy to understand yet sophisticated gastronomic food, composed of great ingredients, all of which makes its client very happy.
 
Way to go Henry.