LFW: Marko Mitanovski AW15/16 collection

Really, what is the point of the fashion industry? When all the glossy glamour of an unlimited supply of Veda Coco coconut water is stripped and torn from it, what does fashion, in actuality, achieve? When the lights dimmed, and an inky dankness poured a looming influence into the Freemason's Hall, the answer became known: art. Caught perhaps in-between sipping their free coconut water and Instagramming their shoes, the front row was cast into a sweeping euphoria for the first model to break the shadowed hall stepped into the luminous, white paneled floor.

The windows that broke the grandeur of the walls closed the halls from the crispy winds of Winter, but also, closing the hall from the world, as the august spectators entered the oily black bubble of Marko Mitanovski's AW15 collection, none other than for London Fashion Week.

The model's hollowed gaze posed a melancholic emptiness to the bubblegum fashion press. Grudgingly creeping across the runway, everyone was gasping in awe over what trolled in above them, the achingly slow movements of the models only twisted the already intense mood of the room. The first model, a fishnet bodysuit with gothically pastoral patterns, a reptilian armored cape and bejewlled headpiece enshrouding her, was the most realistically wearable of the collection. But I certainly wasn't complaining! Trudging through the intense stares of the frow to a grotesque, mechanical beat DJ'd by Marko Marosiuk (I ship the two guys together, I'm calling them Marko²) , the clothing itself was jet-black leather scathed with Victorian-Romanticist references, with Byronic and pastoral imagery scratched onto the raven feathered pieces. 

Marko Mitanovski is a Serbian designer based in London, a city once at the forefront of amorously eerie culture. It's as if Marko's influence jumps across the murky dark alleyways of Victorian London. Graduating from The College of Design in Belgrade, 2009, Marko has since lashed out against conventional stylings and opted for an infusion of old-age flamboyance with other-worldy translucency. 

Shoulders and hips were exaggerated to near falcon-like proportions. Leather, leather and more leather, with a pinch of black and fishnet tights, oversized collared jackets, midi skirts and Renassicance-inspired big sleeves cracked the 70s sway towards exaggeration. 

Stylist and Art Director Claudia Behnke helped in enveloping the models into demons. The black make up and body paint was ominous, the whole thing looking like a metal bands' dream. Hair was slicked back, set alight with henna-esque colour, the colour clawing onto the hair in an ombre fashion. Everything was a spectacle. The faces were covered in dull jewels, though, this still beat Amy Childes' three layers of fake tan.

The lights died down in the sunless place. The silhouette of a model wavered across the floor, flirting with the onlookers. The spotlight gleamed and the unquiet darkness was pierced by the final model, dressed all in white. People's eyes must have re-adjusted at this enigma. It was Mitanovski's rendition of a bridesmaid, the fishnet eyelets gleaming the light of camera flashes. Could the whole collection be the funeral of a bridesmaid, mourning her death? Or was it, considering that this was the final day of LFW, mourning the death of my ability to sleep? Only Marko knows.

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Fashion is art. Marko Mitanovski relentlessly proves this. His collection looks outside of the scope of marketability, with a jiving of natural, architectural and historical aesthetics. 

The morning after saw the collection be embellished and spread across the headlines. Images of the Victorian era clothing resting below or perched above captions such as the Independent's 'Darkness descends Fashion Week.' 

Out of all that I was able to witness at LFW this season, I can safely say that this stood out the most. For once, the show felt like something worthy of London Fashion Week, not just something designed to be bought by buyers and sold off for money. It was art

What did you all think of Marko Mitanovski's AW15 LFW collection?