London Fashion Week show report: David Koma

After our much heralded summer of sport, it seems fitting that David Koma looks to female tennis players as inspiration for the SS13 collection. Although rather than this collection being inspired by our young superstars Laura Robson and Heather Watson, David looked to the pros of yesteryear - Gussie Moran, Suzanne Lenglen and Lea Pericoli. These were the first women to prove that the fairer sex could also do some pretty impressive things with a racket, whilst also bringing style and elegance to the sport.

Thanks to 2012 fever we've all become slightly obsessed with professional female athletes and their undeniable confidence and focus. They've replaced reality TV stars as our water cooler convo fodder. We've fallen in love with them. But as a nation obsessed with fashion too, it's not surprising that a lot have looked to these women to see how they carry themselves. I'm surprised more designers haven't looked to sport for inspiration this season.

David chose to focus on the tennis dress in an array of colours including, naturally, crisp white, but also grass green, tangerine orange and a gorgeously vivid royal blue. There were skorts (surely the best word in fashion, non?), tees and bra like crop tops. There were loose sweaters covering bodycon dresses for anyone who was worried there wasn't enough trademark Koma. This was still a sexy collection for the uber confident!

Fabric wise we were looking at everything from silk to thick sweatshirt-esque jersey to patent leather. Geometric patterns came from a lattice tennis net effect, used both as luxurious embroidery and prints. And the tennis influence went all the way down to the (amazing) shoes - the heels being fashioned with tennis racket handle grip. A very cool collaboration with shoe designer Alain Quilici once again...out of everything I posted on Twitter from the show it was the shoes that got the most comments!

As for the show itself, it was typically packed. The front row was graced by Pixie Lott and her hot stuff model boyf Oliver Cheshire. They seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. But then it was hard not to. David designs for beautiful, confident, hard and fast women - he really is one of the finest emerging talents in our fair city.