We caught up with Brown Thomas Fashion Director Shelly Corkery at the AW18 launch to hear what she's excited about for the season ahead.
The Trends
"It's quite a diverse season, there's so many different things happening. There's a big focus on tailoring for sure.. sartorial tailoring and reconstructed tailoring is really important for the autumn/winter ahead. That's a big new theme and a new direction and a new trend," she said.
The other big thing? Shoulders. In fact, anything 80's related is back on the catwalk - think big shoulders, cinched waists, and bright colours. We saw quite a bit of the retro influence in the collections on the catwalk.
The trend is so strong in fact, that Shelly chose to open the show with Prada's impressive neon pieces.
"There's lots of brights but black is definitely omnipresent for this season but I think it's more about brights and it's a colourful season but black is definitely on its way back." she added referring to the spectrum of bright colours visible at the launch.
Feminism and Fabrics
Elaborating on the influence of feminism on next season trends she said, "I think it's quite extraordinary to see the diversity when we talk about women and empowerment and feminists from Dior coming through quite strong. And then [there's] grunge from Balenciaga in the same season, which is quite a diversity from [one] end of fashion to the other."
Overall, Corkery believes that this season is about having fun with fabrics.
"It's quite a feminine season, there's lots of embellishment, lots of brocades, lots of silks, jacquards, loads of jewellery and loads of fun," she said.
In terms of what people will be investing in for their winter wardrobes, the director insists that people will want to buy, "a little bit of the sartorial suiting, that sort of 'CEO inspired' tailoring is really important this season, either masculine or feminine but the big focus is on femininity."
Celia Holman Lee
There were plenty of fashionistas on hand to give their reactions to the upcoming trends and style too.
Celia Holman Lee was most excited about the shapes in the season ahead, insisting that skirts absolutely have a place in Autumn/Winter fashion.
"I loved all the full skirts, I'm a great skirt person and have been since I entered the industry over 50 years ago," she said.
She also commented on the structure involved in the coats and jackets.
"When I saw Richard Quinn, I thought I was just going to collapse. That for me, because I've been around so long, to see something so visionary like that coming is just phenomenal, it's like a piece of art," she said.
Planning her own autumn/winter wardrobe, she says her investment piece will be the accessories she fell in love with the bags and shoes. "And maybe one of the coats," she adds, "well maybe all the coats...but I don't think so."
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Cathy O'Connor
Stylist Cathy O' Connor is loving AW18 for "the bravery of it", she says there's "less of the minimalist looks and lots of interesting shapes and silhouettes."
Speaking about her winter wardrobe she says her investment piece will be "amazing accessories."
Giving her take on what we'll be seeing on the high street she predicts, "lots of clashing prints, the advent of tartan and checks will be very big. And lots of ruffles and boa... embrace it."
Her fashion tip is to buy things that "really enhance your individual style, it's about style not fashion. It's about buying things that are going to really work for you. Buy something that you love to see and enjoy wearing."
