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Cara Delevingne and Kate Moss, image via: Instagram.com
Sometimes I feel bad for London. Besides the several big names of the bunch that show in the city's fashion week, it seems to get lost amongst the buzz surrounding the start of fashion month and American commerciality and sportswear in New York, and the original two fashion cities with some of the biggest names and most anticipated shows in the industry in Milan and Paris. Many of the shows are slightly less commercial than New York's famed wearability and less, er, "fashion-y" for lack of a better word, than the two big European cities. 

I guess it was because of this fact that I felt there were fewer really wearable and notable trends to point out from the week in the UK for Spring 2014. But I don't want to seem like I'm hating on it. It doesn't mean there weren't some fantastic looks and collections to walk the runways, and some trends that were undeniably there, no matter how wearable. London is definitely a very fun and carefree fashion city, and the street style there has an extremely unique look to it, which gives the city a very interesting personality. 
-E
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Temperley London, image via: Style.com
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Richard Nicoll, image via: Style.com
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Ashish, image via: Style.com
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Whistles, image via: Style.com
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Meadham Kirchoff, image via: Style.com
pattern mixing plus: This week saw a lot of pattern mixing, which is nothing new, but the interesting elevation in the trend was surprising texture and color combinations that said "made you look" while keeping your stare. Kate Middleton favorite Temperley London was one of these collections. Others that got on board were Mary Katrantzou, Duro Olowu, Matthew Williamson and Michael van der Ham.
sheer layering: Again, nothing so new, but this trend was taken to a new level with some full layers, as in, a sheer layer completely covering an already complete look. Other designers played with sheer additions in very striking ways that weren't all over layers. It adds a cool visual effect to what could potentially be already done looks. More designers were Preen and Erdem.
horizontal stripes: Another old news trend, though we haven't seen much of it of note in recent years. A few designers sent looks out that played with horizontal stripes in fun ways this week. Others were Richard Nicoll and Whistles.
90s inspired, without the cringe: We saw at New York Fashion Week that the 90s are back. More than any other decade call back (and there were far fewer than in spring 2013), the decade of nostalgia prevailed. Except this time around, you don't want to make a face and wonder what "they" were thinking when you see the looks. 
costume-y clothes: This isn't as much a trend as it is unique to London. Few designers in any other fashion city take these kind of risks. They're not so wearable, but they evoke a sense of personality for a designer and are undoubtably fun to see. It's kind of a return to What Fashion Is All About, in the abstract way (for designers who have the disposable income to show at fashion week). Other players are several designers of Fashion East, Ashish and Marques'Alemeida.

favorite collections

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Paul Smith, image via: Style.com
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David Koma, image via: TheCut.com
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Markus Lupfer, image via: Style.com
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Osman, image via: Style.com
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Sea, image via: Style.com
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Tom Ford, image via: Style.com
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Topshop Unique, image via: Style.com

and one last thing

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Okay, two. I wanted to give Sophia Webster an honorable mention, because her collection walked the line of costume-y, like I talked above, but also fun with pieces that were wearable and feminine. Her designs this season were like Kate Spade meets Betsey Johnson, and it made for a lot of fun to look at.
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NO. Simone Rocha, image via: Style.com
And not so honorable mention, call me traditional, but every few seasons, designers try to bring back the skirt/dress over pants deal, and I wish they would stop. No human is "ready to wear" an actual dress or skirt over actual pants. It's bulky and looks weird in not an artistic designer way, but a dated way that makes me roll my eyes. It's not always horrrrrrible (when on tall, thin models or perfectly sculpted daring celebs), but choose one and move on with it.

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