LONDON Fashion Week began with a farewell to one of the most influential figures in British fashion, Vivienne Westwood. On the eve of the first day of its Fall-Winter 2023 shows, the designer, who died in December, was celebrated at London’s Southwark Cathedral in a memorial service attended by fashionable dignitaries including Kate Moss, Marc Jacobs and Helena Bonham Carter. The British Fashion Council (BFC) also announced that London Fashion Week would be dedicated to the legendary designer known widely as the priestess of punk. It was a jam-packed schedule within which emerging brands outnumbered the more established labels such as Burberry and Christopher Kane. Debuts were aplenty: Greek label Di Petsa staged its first — and suitably theatrical — catwalk after hosting a presentation in 2020. Chinese newcomer Buerlangma showed in London for the first time. In Buddhism, “buer” means unique and “l(fā)angma” stands for “Qomolangma,” the highest mountain in the world, said its designer Yuan Qiqi (original name Yuan Junhao). Most notably, Daniel Lee successfully delivered his first collection for Burberry on Monday night, putting forward a cozy, punk-inspired aesthetic for the British heritage house. On Tuesday, three Ukrainian designers presented their collections at a special Ukrainian Fashion Week hosted in London. Other highlights included AI-generated animal prints (think piglets, baby chicks and rats) at Christopher Kane, dainty ribbons in the place of eyeliner at Simone Rocha, a nautical-themed S.S. Daley show Sunday night, and a series of ivory bridal gowns at Richard Quinn. Across the five-day event, there were moments of diverse casting that felt few and far between. Curves were abundant at Di Petsa’s show, and Brazilian-born designer Karoline Vitto once again built her collection with bigger bodies in mind. Sinead O’Dwyer started the week with one of the most diverse casts of models seen on the schedule (including larger bodies, a model using a wheelchair and a pregnant model), but the general tide skewed skinny — a signal the battle for true body positivity is far from over. Not one, but two shows featured expectant models. A consistent champion of body diversity, womenswear designer Sinead O’Dwyer featured a heavily pregnant Tessa Kuragi on one of the first runways of the season. Meanwhile, Di Petsa — whose regal wet-look gowns have been worn by Kylie Jenner, Lizzo and even Gigi Hadid in her last trimester — opened its Fall-Winter 2023 show with a pregnant model, and created several garments which mimicked the baby bump silhouette. Inspired by the Greek myth of Persephone and themes of rebirth, ideas around parturition were hammered home by the label’s founder, Dimitra Petsa, moored on a rock in the middle of the catwalk chanting “your belly button is the center of the earth.” Emerging designer Susan Fang also made it a family affair. On Monday, the label debuted its first childrenswear collection. Miniature floral dresses with diaphanous poplin collars were modeled by adorable toddlers, chaperoned by adult models in corresponding looks. Designers this season appeared to sit in two camps: those who adopted a more mercantile mindset and those who seemingly threw caution to the wind and chose art over commerce. Young labels Natasha Zinko and Mowalola found fashion’s funny bone: Zinko with a collection that centered plastic green six-packs and Hulk-inspired makeup, and Mowalola with jeans that were so comically low-slung they sat at the knees. At KWK by Kay Kwok giant metallic shields doubled as dystopian body jewelry, while at Harri’s presentation — the label responsible for Sam Smith’s viral BAFTAs red carpet look — ballooning inflatable trousers were offset by neckties. Elsewhere, brands like 16Arlington, Ahluwalia and David Koma produced more refined, wearable party pieces. You needed more than an encyclopedic knowledge of fashion to understand some of Fall-Winter 2023’s references, as designers went cross-disciplinary. At Connor Ives’ second London runway show, the American designer included an esoteric nod to the 1998 film “The Parent Trap.” Ives’ closing look, a bridal dress and white veiled top hat modeled by TikTok influencer Alex Consani, was inspired by a scene from the movie. Matty Bovan equally found inspiration in film. His baroque, sci-fi-looking creations are in part influenced by “Blade Runner” (1982). After winning both the LVMH Prize and the British Fashion Council’s award for emerging talent last year, Liverpudlian Steven Stokey-Daley presented his latest collection to a room of high-profile editors including Anna Wintour. The show opened with a surprise performance from British theater heavyweight Ian McKellan who read aloud Alfred Tennyson’s “The Coming of Arthur.” The poem inspired Kate Bush’s “The Ninth Wave,” a series of songs that served as the starting point for the lost-at-sea-themed collection. (SD-Agencies) | 