To label Fred Butler a fashion designer or an accessories’ designer would be reductive: she is a prop designer who is well-established in the fashion world and brings bodies and concepts to life with an extraordinary ease. Her shows are bling, fun, exciting: this one was named ”A Bee in My Bonnet, With a Honey Hair Comb” and its inspiration was, you guessed it, the bee.

Bee – hive – gold – honey – flowers. As simple as that. The shapes were reduced to the hexagonal patterns of the hive and the petals of flowers, replicated on golden chains, heavy belts, dangling bangles and chocolate boxes-bags.

Everything, in fact, was literally dripping in gold, halfway between a hip-hop Piñata and chocolate coins wrapped in catarifrangent or metallic paper. The helmets/headpieces were the strongest pieces, somehow remaining delicate despite their heavy ornamentations. Queen B via Club Kids via A Midsummer’s Night Dream.

Just like in Henry Fuseli’s Titania scene, golden headpieces, necklaces and music dominated the show. The daisy headphones nodded to the contribution between Fred Butler and DJ Two Inch Punch;  you can listen to it here in the fashion film they produced for the occasion, directed by Elisha Smith-Leverock.

The communion between music and fashion was essential to give a further dimension to the bee-and-honey inspiration: with the soundtrack “buzzing and humming”, the Portico Rooms were a gateway to the hive.

What screams spring more than flowers? The daisy overdose and the hip-hop take on the idyllic inspiration were spot on, as there was just the right touch of humour to avoid plain summer kitsch. This was also due to Rosy Nicholas’ footwear, over-the-top, of course, but not in an overtly commercial way.

Nothing was left unfinished: the long honey braids of the models were adorned with even more daisies and Marian Newman’s bee manicure completed the hive queens’ attires.

Photos Isa Jakob, Füssli’s Titania via wikipedia