There was nothing about Richard Nicoll’s Spring/Summer 2014 collection that wasn’t season appropriate, and yet the designer has a divine gift for making even the most summery of things look decidedly frosty. And while a cold car park venue and Nico’s Frozen Warnings on the sound system certainly helped the chill factor along, it was in the layering of thin-as-ice materials and shimmery greys that Nicoll really nailed it. Backstage he talked about how approaching summer without colour was a fun challenge, called the collection ‘clinical’, and refused any notion of the sparkly fabrics being associated with nightlife.
The show notes had promised ‘bubblegum pink pop’, but it was almost reassuring to see that Nicoll’s interpretation of said phenomenon was limited to four exits, which hurriedly morphed into grey. (Overheard in Block C: ‘I think that bubblegum lost its flavour…’) It was in the sixties street photography of Garry Winogrand that Nicoll took his inspiration, and it was a kind of chic that was evident all along – especially in the grey segment, which eventually closed the show. For an aesthetic that so many designers are trying to make their own at this time in fashion, it’s nice to see it presented so naturally, unforced and well-executed as is the case with Richard Nicoll.
