MAW at London Fashion Week: Autumn/Winter colour trend report

Amidst the familiar sea of black there were a few colour tendencies that shone out during the week. Metallics were big again but this year bronze, copper and brass are finally starting to push out the silver and gold as shown at Bryce Aime, Chrisian Blanken and my pick of Vauxhall fashion Scout: Iris Van Herpen.

Above: copper zippered bondage at Bryce Aime

Below: With her bronze leather slashing Iris van Herpen's show was a highlight of Vauxhall Fashion Scout

These warmer metals can be linked to a wider trend for natural autumnal shades which pretty much dominated anything outside the digital printing camp from Burberry Prorsum to Kinder Aggugini via Nicole Farhi and Rocksanda Illincic and on the main runways.

Aran knitwear from recyclers Goodone (above) and knitwear company North Circular

Perhaps inspired by the taste for vintage fabrics I detected the emergence of a trend in Aran knitwear too. Unsurprisingly this featured highly in the showrooms at Esthetica, the ethical designers space with brands like reclycers Goodone and knitting specialists The North Circular showing their own modern takes on the look. And when Julien Macdonald sent his models down the runway in oversized off-white cable knits, the trend seemed to solidify.

Above: Dark blue wide cord ruled James Long's catwalk

Below: Topman Design also favoured the blue hue

Finally, dark blue looks set to be huge next winter. If we got a feel for this during womens fashion week on catwalks from Jonathan Saunders and Louise Goldin, its future dominance was seemed certain during mens day in strong shows from the likes of Topman Design and James Long. I can't help thinking we've still got Alber Elbaz to thanks for all this. After all it was the elegance and aggressive red-carpet uptake of his collections a few years ago that first alerted us to the power of dark blue and black. What we're seeing now is yet more filtering down and experimentation of his aesthetic which at the time was really brave.

On the slate...