Tod's goes all rock 'n' roll as it prepares to launch Tod's Band

At the entrance to Tod's show venue hung a series of portraits of artists, models and musicians - cool-looking, independent individuals whose faces we are going to see a lot more of over the coming year as they form what the fashion house calls Tod's Band. Among them are Elizabeth Jagger, filmmaker Quentin Jones and Paris-born model Mae Lapres. Some of them showed looks from Tod's spring/summer 2016 collection by creative director Alessandra Facchinetti at London Fashion Week.

The collection took a new direction for Tod's womenswear, with a rock 'n' roll or rockabilly sensibility. Leather jackets were customised with guitar motifs, shirts had leather detailing and we saw perforated white or crystal-patterned black leather skirts. Long dresses bore vinyl record prints, while a baseball jacket featured a more whimsical willow print. Leather trousers, pinstripe, sneakers and the flat iconic Gommino loafer covered in safety pins and patches gave the collection attitude.

The handbags too were toughened up with metal guitar motifs, updated with biker-bag-style cross-body straps and a shiny new graphic logo.