London Fashion Week: David Koma

David Koma’s AW14 show took inspiration from 50 Shades of Grey with bondage details, flesh-flashing cut-outs, caged bodices, harness-style collars and lots and lots of leather.

The Georgian designer’s fascination with the female form was apparent, resulting in another body conscious collection of unforgiving silhouettes for the confident, empowered woman.

Fittingly, the colour palette was grey — icy blue/grey to be exact — along with matte black, cool ivory and a Koma favourite; electric blue. Royal purple also made a brief appearance.

Models stormed the catwalk sporting sleek ponytails and oozing sex appeal in black and grey high-collared dresses that were anything but demure. A favourite was a grey, A-line dress with thick fabric criss-crossing across a plummeting neckline before winding around the neck in a high harness collar.

Renowned for applying his innovative technique to create unique embellishments, Koma wowed with laser-cut geometric pattern creations, overlaid onto sheer mesh fabrics. From a distance these cut-outs appeared to float over the models’ necklines, hemlines and along the entire length of a long-line jacket, giving off an air of tough girl negligée.

The basket-woven peplum corsets matched with A-line leather pleated skirts were characteristic of the sculptural shapes we have come to expect from Koma.

So, the AW14 Koma equation is simply this: the fit must be perfect and it must be balanced. Match a high neckline with a slashed torso or a cheeky cage cut-out. If the skirt is A-line make the top fitted, either as a corseted bodice or merciless lycra.

Evidently, it’s an incredibly brave silhouette, which explains why it’s typically body-confident celebs like Beyonce, Rihanna and Cheryl Cole, who flock to be dressed by the designer. However, those who lack the body confidence can still get a piece of the action with the lust-worthy footwear. I personally drooled over a pair of gorgeous peep-toe, knee-length boots which come in black or rich purple.

Koma’s AW14 collection manages to capture that seductive, tough-leather spirit and accentuate it, giving bad girl a high fashion makeover.

Image by Daniel Sims, BFC