Last season, Hakaan Yildirim scored a hit with his distillation of sports couture that proved his Hakaan label had a distinct (and discernible) point of view. For Autumn/Winter 2012, rather than a volte face Yildirim decided to continue on the same route and refine that message. Wise move, although risky. After all, the rest of fashion has moved away from its bi-seasonal flirtation with gussied-up exercise gear, hence there's a danger Yildirim could be left behind.
Yildirim's clothes this season moved on from the close-cleaved lines of spring to a boxier volume, garments jutting away from the body stiffened by quilting, or falling away by virtue of thick and easily unfastened zippers. Those relaxed shapes were applied to boxy sweatshirt dresses as well as oversized parkas in leather and fur, shrugged over tailored mannish suits that added to the man/woman story Hakaan began last winter with. This time, his colour-palette was sharper and eons more confident, in olive, copper, gunmetal and haemoglobin red.
There was a hard eighties vibe to much of this Hakaan shown, maybe by virtue of the extended shoulderline, sharp heels and the snap of all that fur and leather. There was also a dressier feel than his last offering, with ostrich fronds wafting across a skirt, a duffle-coat dresses up in khaki-coloured fox, or a Perfecto elongated into a jumpsuit. When the dresses suctioned against the body they felt too Montana at Le Palace body-con to be relevant to the twenty-first century. They also hampered the gait of the models, never great for selling a garment to an audience of women obsessed with hot-footing from show-to-show during fashion week, never mind speeding around their busy everyday lives. The more relaxed sportswear elements felt much more relevant and easily assimilated into their wardrobe. It also felt different to the things we've seen on other catwalks for winter. Hopefully that sports deluxe thing isn't a seasonal obsession so much as a new direction for the Hakaan label. It's certainly worth exploring further.