LCM: Ada + Nik AW15/16 collection

Style is something that, to me, develops over time. It's a diachronic force that evolves and matures with you. When I was younger, I had no idea what I was doing when I opened up my wardrobe each day. Why I wore a graphic tee over a dress shirt still gives me nightmares to this day, even more so than Zosia Zamet's Golden Globes 2015 dress. As an oblivious 14 year old, I looked up to people with years upon years of experience ladened onto their shoulders for inspiration. One of whom, was Nik Thakkar.

Ada + Nik was founded just one year ago by Ada Zanditon and Nik Thakkar - their first collection being for SS14 - since then, their approach to aesthetics has gestured a craze for their signature dark matter stylisations of clothing, often taking to the under-belly of subculture phenoms for inspiration. I used to dress really structurally. Heck, I wouldn't dare unbutton my shirt's top button. 

Ada + Nik showed the stuffy world of high-fashion with an uncontrolled symphony of broken sculptures, edgy leather, and lots, and lots, and lots of black. And if there's one thing that'll never change in fashion, and me, is that we'll only stop wearing black until they invent a darker colour. So I was absolutely honoured to attend Ada + Nik's AW15 collection for London Collections: Men. 

Titled 'Noir Desir', the heroic collection centered on a fusion of 'Greco Roman looks with 1970s British Punk culture. The result? A monochromatic arc of reformed outerwear. Italian biker jackets, sombre bombers and drooping longline coats firmly resting above the knee; this enterprise of leather paneling and geometric cuts was defining. 

But before the monolithic models strolled down the runway, Ada+Nik showed their conceptual film of the same name, a powerful and dramatic vision set the dimly lit stage for the collection. The abstraction fluttered across a demented daydream, the black and white visions reclined  in your memory. I stood in a drove of immaculately dressed people, and I certainly wasn't complaining.

I stood in the center of one side of this triangular runway. The hot flashes of the cameras carved a path through the front row, full of memorable faces and suits in the likes of Arcadian writers, illustrator Hayden Williams and even Andy Jordan's dapperly robust face making an appearance. He wore a navy plaid suit and burgundy turtleneck, so a little more strucutred than his co-star, Oliver Proudlock, who's dandily Western ensemble cut into the inkly layered aesthetics that drenched onto the basement of ME London.

Against a haunting drumbeat of electronica, the Russian Tsarist-esque models strummed to the beat of leather and mesh separates, infused with showerproof technical fabrics, memory cotton and luxury airtex. The brand's iconic use of separates balanced delectably dark mesh and leathers in a throng of skirts, t-shirts and jumpers. 

The towering models flirted with their audience, often smirking as if to accentuate the collection's rebellious dalliance with the urban. Velevety Nike sneakers were the footwear of choice, forming a striking textual difference, their softer touch mis-matched the glossy leathers and scratchy mesh. 

Styled by Nicco Torelli, the avant-garde tailoring was caught within the sweeping technological stance of contemporary fashions. Ada+Nik had created the world's first leather jacket with an in-built camera with narrative clip to capture photos and location data without conscious interaction. A subtle, but undeniably tremendous leap for wearable technology. An Apple iCoat, anyone?

Once the lights illuminated the room, a night of delectable debauchery ensued for the after party, hosted by The Arcadia Online and Ciroc. It was an amazing night, being in the same room as both my idol and fashion inspiration, to sitting here writing this review, was a pretty good way to kick off 2015 to say the least.

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 Emerging in recent years as one of the key 'Ones to Watch' , Ada+Nik's AW15/16 collection embodies all that the youngling brand is known for: an experimental use of provocative fabrics, cutting silhouettes and lots, and lots, and lots, of black.

And as you know fashion peeps, you can never go wrong with black.

What did you all think of the collection?