‘Architect of glamour’ Antony Price makes a high-voltage return to the runway with 16Arlington

Like many good stories, Antony Price and Marco Capaldo’s tale begins at a party. It was 2019, and legendary octogenarian fashion designer Price – famed for shaping the visual identities of Roxy Music and Duran Duran – approached the 16Arlington designer and his late partner in life and work, Federica ‘Kikka’ Cavenati, to share a few warm words of encouragement. ‘We had just started,’ remembers Capaldo, taking a long drag of a Vogue cigarette in his east London studio. ‘He shared his love for the ideas of sex and glamour we had explored in those few seasons, and just kind of said, “Keep at it”.’

In the years since, 16Arlington has become one of London’s most distinctive independent brands, its after-dark sensuality embodied by the it-girls and creatives who clad themselves in its sultry shapes on red carpets and in nightclubs. Never forgetting their first meeting, Capaldo got back in touch with Price just over a year ago, after discovering a vintage gown made by the designer that had belonged to Cavanti. She had sourced the piece to wear as maid of honour at her best friend’s wedding just before passing away (the designer died in 2021, aged just 28). ‘I reached out to Antony and said, “I would love to connect”,’ he says. ‘He emailed me back and said, “Call me tonight at 8pm.” And that was it. That first night, we were on the phone till four in the morning.’

While generations apart, the two designers’ connection makes perfect sense. Both have built careers around ideas of glamour, excess and beauty. A designer’s designer – deeply respected within the industry but less widely known outside it – Price’s career is the stuff of star-strewn legend. He dressed David Bowie and Duran Duran, collaborated closely with Philip Treacy, and became so instrumental to the aesthetic of Roxy Music that he was coined the band’s ‘invisible member’. His unrestrained work anticipated the louche, shoulder-padded, corseted silhouettes that would come to define the 1980s, and today Price stands as one of the era’s great architects of glamour. Decades later, Capaldo’s work at 16Arlington similarly impresses its own ideas of meticulously crafted, nocturnal dressing, with its own community of figures at the heart of its universe, from Adwoa Aboah to Lara Stone.

Yesterday evening (17 November 2025), the pair unveiled the product of their unlikely inter-generational friendship, a special collection they have been working on together over the past 12 months. The intimate one-off display was held within 16Arlington’s Hoxton studio, and was brought to life by 16 personalities in Capaldo’s orbit, including Lily Allen, Aboah and Lila Moss. Unfolding less like a traditional runway and more like a woozy 1970s salon, it was everything one would imagine from the blending of their worlds. Allowing guests to take in the designs up close, their ‘models’ slunk through the room in a sequence of evening gowns cut in midnight black velvet, chiffon, kink-leaning leather, and trompe-l’oeil animalier, rendered with an opulent attention to craft – crystal-encrusted, feather-strewn and exquisitely sculpted to the body. It was, of course, a study of glamour – treating it as more than a feeling, but a force that defies time, beguiles onlookers, and allows the wearer to become their most magnetic self.

The pair started by delving into Price’s archives alongside the help of writer and collector Alexander Fury. Among pleated lamé gowns worn by Paula Yates, Swarovski-covered sculpted busts made for Philip Treacy, and a jacket for Bryan Ferry crafted from women’s underwear, a theme among these treasures was Price’s gift for construction. ‘Something that really stuck out in the process with Antony is the way he references the body,’ says Capaldo. ‘He talks a lot about creating the heavenly body through clothing. If you were to take the linings out of some of these pieces, just seeing the detail and the padding that has gone into the inners of these garments is really incredible – they are like sculptures. To kind of be up close and personal with those pieces was amazing. The fact that they are still here and in perfect condition is a testament to Antony's work.’

When it came to designing the new collection, the process unfolded collaboratively over the months, with silhouettes coming into focus one by one. ‘We really focused on sculpting the body, whether that's with the jackets or the dresses,’ says Capaldo. ‘We have a few coats, which are really incredible because they have dress waist measurements on a piece of outerwear. Antony's really allowed me to go with it in the sense of trusting what I feel is right for today, whilst allowing us to fully explore his penmanship and apply that to the collection. There are pieces of his that I've reinterpreted. There are pieces of mine that he's reinterpreted. I say this with hand on heart, there hasn’t been a single moment we’ve butted heads. It’s been amazing.’

Capaldo knew he wanted to do something special for the show. It's something he’s gained a flair for now, after stepping away from the fashion week calendar in favour of more personal events (for A/W 2025, he hosted a candlelit dinner at Almine Rech gallery, which was transformed for the evening with an exhibition of 1980s-reminiscent studio photographs by Ethan James Green). Last night’s presentation, however, felt personal in a deeper way – not least of all because it was staged in the brand’s own studio, where the team work each day. ‘We wanted this show to be a really intimate affair,’ says Capaldo. ‘For people to be able to see the clothes up close, to experience them in the walls that they were made in. Bringing it into the space adds that level of grit, which is something that's so present in both mine and Antony's work.’

Worn by a cast of characters who have inspired Capaldo personally and creatively, the effect was as intended – a celebration of their shared ideas of beauty, individuality and craft. ‘Both Antony and I have been surrounded by these incredible individuals, people that stand for things and have a voice, who have naturally shaped and inspired our careers,’ says Capaldo. ‘Jerry Hall was somebody that was very close to Antony and his journey. My version of Jerry is somebody like Adwoa. I've really relied on my community and my friends to bring the show together and bring this collection to life.’

It was also, of course, a heartwarming celebration of their friendship – and of fashion as a language powerful enough to bridge generations. ‘I speak to Antony every day and I have for the past year, for hours on end,‘ says Capaldo at the end of our call. ‘He's a wonderful man, so talented, so unapologetically opinionated, who loves nothing more than bringing glamour to life and transforming people through clothes.’ Working on the collection with Price, the designer adds, has been one of the most rewarding efforts of his career. ‘I personally felt Antony never really received his flowers,’ he says. ‘To have been able to witness such a legend at work has probably been one of the most incredible and pivotal moments in my career. It's been really magical.’