LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – For Sibling there’s not been too much in the way of pure, unadulterated happiness at the menswear shows up to now. That is partially menswear’s own fault, particularly within the time of year winter season; palettes of sludgy navy and brown do not do much to induce sensations of unchecked joy. However Sibbling, rounding out the second day of shows, can always be relied upon to raise the mood — and that they delivered on their name unquestionably, with a perky pretty-in-pink amusement that blasted most of the day’s mild displays clean out of the water.
The trio’s pink-haired, pink-clad parade of boys were ispiered by a dizzying compilation of heroes: Jim Bowie, Billy Idol, Paul Simonon, Brideshead Revisited’s Sebastian Flyte. The footing, arguably, lay not just in that lineup’s spectacular elaborateness, however within the pure pleasure of how they selected to dress. These garments were boisterously, exuberantly on each level — navy and raspberry striped blazers, glittering checkerboard cardigans, bright pink cobweb knits, crumpled paper-bag tailoring and slick vinyl coats erupting into swathes of goat hair. The boyish proportions were underscored by riotously dishevelled styling, and by lapels festooned with swarms of little unwoven teddy bears — a neat, Flyte-worthy touch echoed in the giant bear-monsters several of the models dragged round the runway. The show notes referenced punk, even as Meadham Kirchhoff’s did last season. However where the Meadham Kirchhoff aesthetic was driven by righteous fury, Sibling had an altogether different, a lot of joyous motivation to their collection: to celebrate.