In my eyes, a book might well be the perfect gift: chosen correctly, it can feel deeply personal – an expression of your knowledge of the recipient’s interests and enthusiasms, whether their desire to be engrossed in a novel or adorn their coffee table with an aesthetically pleasing art monograph.

Here, we offer a line-up of gifts for the style aficionado – a selection of fashion books, all released in 2025, that offer a wide-ranging and visually lush survey of contemporary style, from retrospective compendiums on the work of fashion provocateurs Rick Owens and Jean Paul Gaultier to weighty volumes on Loewe and Louis Vuitton. Alongside are thoughtful studies on the Black Dandy – accompanying this year’s Costume Institute exhibition at The Met – and a deep-thinking exploration of fashion imagery and the domestic space.

Chosen by the Wallpaper* style editors to inspire, intrigue and delight, they are an invitation to contribute to your loved one’s fashion library – or simply build your own.

This week, Erdem and Rizzoli release a monograph titled Erdem, the first book to celebrate one of London’s most enduring and beloved independent fashion brands. Its publication kicks off a milestone 20th anniversary year for the brand, which will also shortly see the opening of a new Chelsea boutique on Sloane Street.

The book, described by the titular designer as ‘more of a manifesto than a retrospective’, takes readers on a journey through two decades of collections, and into the inspirations and references that have shaped Canada-born Erdem Moralıoğlu’s visual world. With photographic and written contributions from the likes of Alasdair McLellan, Juergen Teller, Christian Lacroix, Glenn Close, Inez & Vinoodh and more, the pages are heavy with history, romance, and poetry – the intoxicating house signatures familiar to the brand’s loyal followers.

Erdem Moralıoğlu on 20 years in fashion

In between his lauded S/S 2026 show at the British Museum during London Fashion Week and heading off to the Paris showroom, Erdem caught up with Wallpaper* from in front of an enormous bookshelf in his studio, absolutely stacked with volumes. One suspects he has devoured them all, from cover to cover, such is his insatiable thirst for storytelling.

Wallpaper*: Congratulations on 20 years in business! There’s a quote from you in the press release that says, ‘Fashion, to me, has always been a way to tell stories’. Has the story you want to tell now changed much from 20 years ago?

Erdem Moralıoğlu: The stories I’m interested in have always been about capturing a moment in time. For example, for S/S 2019, I did a collection celebrating the 19th-century performers Fanny [Frederick Park] and Stella [Ernest Boulton], who in today’s language would be called non-binary. For me, it was an interesting way to reflect on a lot of the discourse around gender identity that was happening in that moment. That approach has been quite consistent for me – taking stories from the past as a lens to consider the present – but I think the things I want to talk about have probably changed as I’ve evolved as a person.

W*: And how do you feel the Erdem woman has evolved in these two decades?

EM: She’s expanded. I was most interested at the beginning in these very special pieces that she was wearing to an event, but maybe I wasn’t thinking so much about her at, say, the moment she wakes up in the morning. What does she want to wear when she’s relaxing? I care more about those things now. Her world has gotten bigger. And maybe she’s become lots of different women, rather than this one rigid idea.

W*: I love the idea of an ‘anti-muse’, which is the subject of Dr Maria Balshaw’s essay in the book. What does this phrase convey to you?

EM: Well, I suppose it speaks to this idea that not every collection comes from a place of ‘pretty’, but actually something a bit more interesting and complicated. For S/S 2025, I was thinking a lot about Radclyffe Hall, so the result was this collection that really explored tensions and accords between the masculine and feminine. With S/S 2024, my focus was on Debo Mitford – the late Duchess of Devonshire – who was obviously this high-society figure, but really the collection was more about the idea of inheritance. And actually Debo’s great-granddaughter Cecily was doing [an internship] in the atelier at the time, and was embroidering these curtains from the family seat at Chatsworth, which we used for one of the dresses – a beautiful manifestation of this concept of inheritance.

W*: In Anna Wintour’s introduction to the book, she mentions your preoccupation with the ‘aesthetic foibles and fancies’ of Britain. What does this mean to you?

EM: If I had to summarise it, it would be ‘the perfect imperfect’. Something that’s never quite totally right. You know, a gown worn with brogues.

W*: When compiling this book, was there a moment or memory that provoked a particularly strong emotional reaction in you?

EM: Oh yes, looking back at the early days. Reflecting on my childhood, coming over [from Canada] to study at the Royal College of Art, my graduate collection, starting out at London Fashion Week and thinking about all the people I showed with then and looking at where they are now – that sense of time. Everything’s changed and yet nothing has – it feels like five minutes ago. It was interesting to look back and realise I’m still the same person as I was.

W*: We’ve talked a lot about women, but in the book, Ib Kamara references ‘the Erdem man’ – who is this to you?

EM: I think Ib said that because he’s a total romantic, which is exactly what the Erdem man embodies!

W*: As someone with a deep love of history, how do you keep one eye on the present and future?

EM: I think by using my love of the past as a tool, or a trigger, rather than something to be restricted by. I love the idea that it can take you anywhere, and that by looking backward you can find the inspiration to create something which looks forward – which is what fashion ought to do.

Erdem, published by Rizzoli, is out now. Available from Waterstone’s and Barnes and Noble.

rizzoliusa.com

Nars’ Radiant Longwear Foundation, Radiant Creamy Concealer and Radiant Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturiser are the make-up equivalent of the holy trinity when it comes to creating skin that – if you’ll pardon the beauty cliché – still ‘looks like skin’.

Of course, the raison d’être of the brand, founded by virtuoso François Nars in 1994 with black rubberised packaging designed by Fabien Baron, is to traverse the line between ‘no make-up make-up’ and outré glamour. Though arguably Nars, who remains the creative director for his namesake product line 30 years on, considers these two aesthetics as one and the same.

Nars radiant foundation and concealer are cult classics

Born and raised in the South of France, Nars grew up during the 1960s and 1970s, watching the matriarchs of his family titivating and preening themselves in the signature manner of French women.

Later, he would paint the faces of his mother and grandmothers to practice his make-up skills, before leaving home for Paris to hone his craft at the prestigious Carita Institute. ‘What I learnt from my mother is that character and personality are the most important beauty traits in a person. She was never into heavy make-up, but she always looked amazing, which taught me that less is more,’ Nars once said. In 2021, he even produced a range of products called The Claudette Collection, in tribute to her.

But it was the legendary fashion editor Polly Mellen who gave François Nars his ‘big break’ during the 1980s. Mellen, who passed away in December 2024 at the age of 100, was drawn to his work precisely because it had a ‘lighter’ touch than the make-up by some of his contemporaries. ‘She loved the transparency of the make-up, compared to what was being done at that time,’ Nars told WWD in 2011. ‘I sought out girls with freckles, raw beauty. It was a new concept. I wanted to show that they were human,’ he explained.

A seminal moment in Nars’ career was keying the make-up for Marc Jacobs’ S/S 1993 show for Perry Ellis, which tore up the rulebook of American style in tribute to the grunge movement. (The collection led to Jacobs’ immediate dismissal from the brand and simultaneously catapulted the fashion designer to stardom).

Grunge was defined by a lived-in nonchalance, epitomised in the styles of Kate Moss and Kristen McMenamy, who closed the Perry Ellis show hand-in-hand. Here, the make-up – semi-mattified skin with a flush of colour on the cheeks, a touch of mascara and eyeliner and balmy lips in the same shade as the model’s skin tones – aided in capturing this mood. ‘Make-up is very important for a show. It’s really an accessory on the runway. You have to be sure that it fits the clothes,’ Nars, who collaborates with Jacobs to this day, once said.

Coinciding with London Fashion Week A/W 2025 (20 – 24 February 2025), and speaking to the brand’s longstanding relationship with the city’s runway shows, Nars has popped up in Covent Garden with an installation called The Players Lounge, celebrating its hero make-up base products. This includes the Natural Radiant Longwear Foundation – a budge-proof, featherlight formula providing medium to full coverage – and the hydrating, long-wearing and multifunctional Radiant Creamy Concealer.

Ten years ago, at Christopher Kane A/W 2015, key make-up artist Lucia Pieroni used Nars on the models, including the sheer yet buildable Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturiser producing looks that featured ‘nude skin with a strong handsome eyebrow.’

More recently, for Erdem’s A/W 2023 show, Nars’ global artistry director Jane Richardson led the backstage beauty team, with its Radiant Creamy Concealer subtly evening out complexions, only in the areas requiring it. Slept-in, black eyeliner, creased with a slick of gloss, and The Multiple highlighter stick, daubed onto cheekbones and cupids bows, gave faces an almost perspiratory sheen.

In a shoot for the Wallpaper* March 2025 issue, shot by Grace Difford and styled by our creative and fashion director Jason Hughes, make-up artist Claire Urquhart used Nars to transform model Maaike Klaasen into six visual interpretations of intoxicating perfumes, including seamless finishes to her skin.

Nars is known for its collaborative product collections, teaming up with the likes of Kane and Erdem – the latter brand showing its A/W 2025 collection tomorrow (23 February 2025) – on two limited-edition product edits released in 2015 and 2018 respectively.

For now, we will wait patiently in the hope that a project with a third London designer could soon be in the works.

The Nars Players Lounge is open from 22 – 23 February 2025 between 11am and 6pm at The Stables Unit X, 40 Earlham Street, WC2H 9LH.

nars.co.uk

Opening Erdem’s S/S 2024 show at the British Museum in September 2023, model Tasha Tilberg emerged wearing a particularly beautiful, somewhat elaborate iteration of the classic Barbour jacket: ankle length and boasting proportions more akin to an evening gown, its waxed exterior arrived overlain with a quilted floral layer.

The coat, and the show’s subsequent 42 looks, were inspired by the late Duchess Deborah Devonshire (Debo) and marked the initial offering from Erdem Moralıoğlu’s rich study of Chatsworth House, the Derbyshire mansion the youngest Mitford sister moved into with her husband, Lord Andrew Cavendish, in 1959, the revamping (and ultimately saving) of which she oversaw. While the floral outer of Tilberg’s coat repurposed Debo’s original curtains, further pieces in the collection riffed on Debo’s fondness for Elvis (a series of leather jackets) and echoed her affection for chickens (the gnawed hem of a tweed suit).

‘Erdem: Imaginary Conversations’ at Chatsworth House

‘I would probably ask her what it was like when she first moved in,’ proposed the designer last week, speaking to Wallpaper* at the opening of ‘Imaginary Conversations’, a new exhibition celebrating the collection in dialogue with Chatsworth, facilitated by the Chatsworth House Trust. ‘The moment she stepped into the house, what was the first thing she saw? What did it feel like? I'd love to know how the first day was.’

Moralıoğlu’s own introduction to the house was in 2017, three years after Debo passed away at age 94, when one of his dresses was included in ‘House Style’, an exhibition co-curated by Hamish Bowles, and he was invited to dinner. ‘It was black tie, with candles and flowers from the garden. There was something very beautiful about it; I couldn't help but feel the magic of the house,’ he recalls.

Installed in the Regency Guest Bedrooms – among which is a chamber where Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned, four centuries prior to the Cavendishes’ arrival – the new exhibition reimagines the space as a source of inspiration for Moralıoğlu, highlighting the relationship between the two and how he’s employed references and motifs from the archive into the S/S 2024 collection. Mannequins don standout looks with heavy fabrics bearing the original prints draped nearby, while vitrines hold Debo’s personal items – a straw bag from Hubert de Givenchy, a selection of bug brooches gifted by her husband. Elsewhere a video of the S/S 2024 show is projected onto a white curtain, while portraits of Debo, among them Lucian Freud’s ‘Woman in a White Shirt’, add further context.

The first designer to be given such free rein, Moralıoğlu worked closely with the head of textiles at Chatsworth, Susie Stokoe, who initially arrived at the house in 2009. ‘Chatsworth swallows things,’ she says, relaying how inaccessible much of the mammoth archive was previously (the house itself features some 126 rooms). The exhibition, however, features just a tight edit of Debo’s belongings. ‘It was kind of picking just the exact right pieces,’ notes Moralıoğlu. ‘Certain things required specific types of cabinetry because of humidity, et cetera, but then there are pieces like her chicken bag that felt like a really interesting story to tell. Her riding boots too, felt very important, and that yellow underpinning was a really important piece to have in the show.’

The underpinning, from a Jean Patou couture piece from the 1950s, is situated in The Scots bedroom positioned directly next to a dress it informed from the S/S 2024 collection, near a painting of Debo by John Ulbricht and a grand four-poster bed that fills almost half the room. ‘That tulle dress was one of the last exits from the show, so the relationship between the two [with the yellow], how those dresses relate to each other and kind of speak to each other [feels significant],’ Moralıoğlu notes, observing the correlation between this specific duo and how it encapsulates the spirit of the wider exhibition. ‘I love that room. It’s quite odd, because there are only two things in it, so you have to really look.’

Perhaps one of the busiest rooms, albeit largely calming with its soft palette, is a recreation of the Erdem studio. Featuring a moodboard and fabric swatches, several toiles, a series of paper miniatures, the S/S 2024 show line-up and, at its centre, a workstation with scissors, books, drawings and more, it serves as a nod to process, which is ultimately the nucleus of the exhibition: a chance to engage with Moralıoğlu’s research and appreciate Chatsworth through his lens.

Speaking then, on this curatorial exercise versus putting on a fashion show, the designer suggested that ‘a show is an ephemeral, quick thing. You're thinking about how someone sees something walking, whereas this is thinking about how someone sees something static. You're also thinking [here] about an audience that may or may not know who you are, may or may not have seen your work before, so it's an introduction,’ he says. ‘Also, it’s making the connection between the permanent collection here, combined with the collection that it inspired.’ At the exhibition’s conclusion, Stokoe says, three Erdem looks will join the permanent collection, a move she anticipates will allow future designers to be inspired in the way Moralıoğlu has been.

‘Erdem: Imaginary Conversations’ runs at Chatsworth from 22 June - 20 October 2024.

chatsworth.org

Left, cardigan, €395; top, €470, both by Leorosa. Shorts, £395, by Erdem. Hat, £200, by Maison Michel. Sandals, £750, by Prada. Socks, €25, by Bresciani. Right, cardigans, £860 each, both by Missoni. Sandals, £750, by Prada. Socks, €25, by Bresciani.‘Maralunga’ armchair, £1,050, by Vico Magistretti, for Cassina, from Monument (throughout). 

The S/S 2022 menswear shows touted cocooning, kaleidoscopic and crafty cardigans as the knitwear silhouette of choice.

Milanese brands promoted prismatic, patterned and painterly shapes that reflected the exuberant spirit of the city – from Missoni’s signature chevron to Marni’s brushstroke stripes.

London-based brand Erdem, which presented its first men’s collection for spring, made a case for striped sleeveless jumpers and paintbox-red chunky cardigans in a Sebastian Flyte-meets-1970s-style-icon take on dressing. Meanwhile, the aesthetic of 1980s cinema informed young knitwear label Leorosa’s cardigan designs, which were colour-blocked, boxy creations that riffed on a preppy Ivy League polish.

Fellow fledgling label Waste Yarn Project also favoured contrasting yarn colours, creating collared cardigans formed using asymmetric panels in hues such as turquoise, yellow, fuchsia and orange. Demonstrating an anti-waste approach, each individual style is woven using leftover wool from a Shanghai factory. So instead of being left to gather dust in boxes on a factory floor, the yarns now cocoon the body in bold colour. 

INFORMATION

A version of this article appears in the April 2022 issue of Wallpaper*, on newsstands now and available to subscribers 

It’s been eighteen months since the London fashion crowd stomped the streets in idiosyncratic, head-turning looks, flitting between shows in cultural landmarks across the city, and celebrating the British capital’s spirit of creativity and community. A lot has changed since then. Brands have shuttered, boutiques have closed and our means of communication have shifted. The London Fashion Week schedule has become gender free.

But a warm optimism and anticipation filled the seats at S/S 2022’s shows and presentations, as viewers celebrated the joy of seeing a new clothing collection in real life: the vibrancy of a colour, the texture of a fabric, the drape of a silhouette, by burgeoning brands and behemoths, from 2021 LVMH Prize Winner Nensi Dojaka to Erdem, SS Daley to Roksanda. Here’s eight things to know about the British capital’s return to fashion form and London Fashion Week S/S 2022.

London Fashion Week S/S 2022: all you need to knowLFW : ‘F’ is for friendship

A sense of community is integral to London's fashion scene, a unity brought into focus by talent incubator Fashion East, which celebrated its 20th anniversary at London’s The Standard Hotel. For S/S 2022 Goomheo, Maximilian, HRH, Jawara Alleyne and Chet Lo made up the burgeoning talent roster, Asian-American designer Lo making his debut with a series of futuristic 3D-knit designs, inspired by the vibrance of holiday. Elsewhere, Simone Rocha celebrated her brand's tenth birthday with a party with long-time collaborator Dover Street Market. A stained glass church installation housed a special celebratory collection, featuring archive pieces, and upcycled tableclothes crafted in collaboration with Luncheon magazine.

Matchesfashion celebrated its Innovators initative, a conversational project that sees its latest roster of emerging talent, including Harris Reed, Chopova Lowena and Grace Wales Bonner speak to their creative heroes. At a party at the retailer's majestic Carlos Place townhouse, guests snacked on cute mini pizzas housed in boxes printed with its signature marbled motif. 

Richard Malone – fresh from a turn as gallery curator – marked his collaboration with Mulberry with a show at the Victoria & Albert Musuem. Models strode against a backdrop of breathtaking Renaissance artworks sporting sculptural spliced designs, from cut-out ruched dresses to patchwork leather coats, made using upcycled Mulberry fabrics. They also carried the designer’s accessory interpretations for Mulberry Editions – bold, graphic takes on the brand's ‘Bayswater’ and ‘Darley’ bags. 

Another way to absord the community-focused energy at London Fashion Week? The whoops and cheers from the audience as Nensi Dojaka took a bow on the runway at her S/S 2022 finale, or the hug Maximilian Davis’ mother gave him post-show, in view of the smiling guests.

The city still lives in splendour

After long months of lockdown and social and physical restriction, the British capital is slowly but surely getting its buzz back. Nothing exemplified this more than the diverse locations in which London's brands chose to stage their shows. In celebration of his eponymous label's 15-year anniversary, Erdem hosted an intimate runway show outdoors amongst the classical colonnades of the British Museum, framed by a rainbow that appeared at the show's finale.

Rejina Pyo hot-footed across east London, staging her show at the Zaha Hadid-designed London Aquatics Centre in Stratford, which hosted events during the 2012 Olympics. Simone Rocha showcased her collection at the medieval church St Bartholomew the Great. Roksanda returned to her regular Serpentine Galleries location. And Kiko Kostadinov looked to the rooftop of the Selgas Cano-designed workspace Second Home.

More gritty, Knwls took guests to a dimly lit underground car park behind Oxford Street, while Edward Crutchley shone colourful lasers and smoke across the unfinished concrete interior of Collins’ Music Hall. Saul Nash brought memories of going to school in Hackney to his idiosyncratically performance-focused runway show, with male models sporting hybrid tracksuits and Nikes and getting changed in front of the audience at bus stops.

Skimpy is chic

Let's hear it for flaunting the female form. Following on from the glamour and body-sporting chic at New York Fashion Week S/S 2022, a host of brands embraced unabashed body-con silhouettes. Supriya Lele brought a confident, grown-up mood to her colourful, 1990s-centric shapes, with cut-out halterneck dresses in soft leather, daring bodysuits paired with wrap skirts and cropped bomber jackets. Inspired by archetypal silhouettes, she reinterpreted a man's oversized vest as a sheer sequined net dress, and reimagined a pair of capri pants in sheer mesh that tied at the navel. ‘The collection is about evolution and pushing the brand forward,’ Lele told Wallpaper*. ‘It's about reaffirming what we are good at.’

Nensi Dojaka, who scooped this year’s LVMH Prize, evolved her signature lingerie-centric LBDs, updating her transparent strappy pieces with pinks and browns and adding knitwear elements and tailoring, such as tuxedo trousers and oversized blazers. Elsewhere, Knwls brought heavy-metal biker-girl glam to its sexy skin-tight silhouettes, with bleached denim, cracked leather, sand-splashed hues and cowboy hats.

Menswear is in the mix

S/S 2022 saw the men's and women's catwalk schedule physically merge. Cue Saul Nash's school-inspired sportswear take, complete with Nikes, Kickers and tracksuits printed with the Hackey-born designer’s TFL travel pass; plus Molly Goddard's menswear evolution, which saw silhouettes inspired by children's clothes, and models sporting heart-motif intarsia knits, thigh-revealing shorts and ballet pumps. Upcycling wunderkind SS Daley's debut catwalk show featured whimsical, upcycled silhouettes, from paisley suits to rugby shirts, voluminous trousers to dressing gowns, while Stefan Cooke looked to classic wardrobe pieces, like tracksuit bottoms, polo shirts, vests and bomber jackets, reintrepreting them with trompe l’oeil effects, light-hearted dancing-women motifs, cable-knit appliqué and chainmail.

Set your sights on far horizons

Unsurprisingly, a host of designers set their sights on escapist scenes. At Fashion East, Maximilian looked with a nostalgic nod to the sun-soaked colours and vibrancy of life on the islands of the Caribbean Sea, inspired by memories of family visits to Trinidad, presenting ocean tones, reds inspired by the island’s scarlet ibis bird, and outfits riffing on carnival attendees.

Chet Lo's innovative knitwear also looked to sun-drenched sojourns, the tones of tropical cocktails and the outlines of pool inflatables.

Laura and Deanna Fanning looked to the streets around north London that they walked during lockdown for Kiko Kostadinov's A/W 2021 collection; but for S/S 2022 they looked to the sunny shores of their native Australia, where they have not returned since the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Looking to beach literature by Kathy Lett and Tim Winton, the brand's collection referenced surf, salt-baked tones from sand to oceanic blues, the undulating shapes of waves, and the relaxed ease of beach living. Wrap skirts were embellished with shells, blouses had flowing handkerchief shapes, and ribbed knits were imagined as upside down cardigans. ‘For many Australians, the coast is such an ordinary aspect of growing up that can be a fetishised and commercialised norm. In saying that, there are so many beautiful parts of the coast that really give you a sense of perspective, relief and a moment to reflect in its calmness and sparsity. Not being able to return home, we really felt a sense of longing for the calmness and balance that coastal trips and moments provide for us,’ the sisters told Wallpaper*.

The show must (not) go on

Not all brands were back on the official schedule, with notable exceptions from September's London Fashion Week being Burberry, Christopher Kane and Chalayan. Margaret Howell skipped a physical show in favour of a film and a small collection of accompanying appointments – the perfect way for the brand to allow editors to touch the tactile, time-honed fabrications and attention to cut and comfort that the label spends hours deliberating over. Chalky, paint-like textures were central to the men's and women's collection, which featured pastel-hued simple striped dresses, Mackintosh-designed boxy cagoules, casual unlined tailoring and schoolish-inspired styling. ‘Each season, there's a lot of tweaks that go on,' Howell told Wallpaper* of silhouettes that nodded to heritage styles in the brand's extensive archive.

Prince of partywear Halpern also eschewed a physical show, in favour of a digital film created in collaboration with The Royal Ballet. At the Royal Opera House, dancers twirled in fluid silk gowns and dresses drenched in colourful fringing. JW Anderson also skipped an IRL show, debuting instead a collection film and in-store activations at the brand’s 6a-designed Soho boutique. 

Christopher Kane and Burberry chose to hold their runway shows through livestream in October, parallel to Paris Fashion Week. The former, presented an offering that meditated between minimalism and more tongue in cheek silhouettes, featuring dresses in fluid metallic pleats or with architectural volumes, satin coats with 3D folds, chainmail tops and jumpers and shirts embellished with the figurative characters that Kane dreamt up during lockdown.

The world is a stage (and a swimming pool)

Theatricality was high on the agenda for a host of immersive, performance-focused shows. At London Aquatics Centre in Stratford, Rejina Pyo showed a colourful print-splashed collection, featuring Canadian tuxedos, puritan-collar dresses, ruched skirts and oversized tailoring. At the show’s finale, models ascended the space's diving boards and were joined by members of the GB diving team, who wore bold swimming costumes and performed breathtaking dives into the swimming pool below.

Roksanda returned to her favourite Serpentine Pavilion venue – designed for 2021 by South African architecture practice Counterspace, using Portuguese cork and bricks made of construction waste – with a show-cum-performance, created in collaboration with choreographer Holly Blakey. Dancers ascended seating, crawled across the floor and clambered onto each others shoulders in a performance inspired by layered human emotion and tension, wearing the designer's colourful, motion-fuelled pieces, like bell sleeve gowns, fringed dresses and slouchy suiting.

Menswear designer Steven Stokey-Daley – whose star began to ascend after his whimsical, upcycled designs were sported by Harry Styles – enlisted members of the National Youth Theatre for his brand SS Daley’s debut catwalk show, with a performance that riffed on notions of masculinity, stereotypes of public and private school, power structure and class. The designer developed these fascinations when studying at the University of Westminster, which has a campus overlooking Harrow School's rubgy fields. Meanwhile, Charles Jeffrey returned to dramatic form, staging ‘Portal' at the gritty Metalworks in Islington, with models striding amongst laser beams and sporting century-spanning garments, headpieces ablaze with burning candles.

Mum’s the word

Simone Rocha recently gave birth to her second daughter, and for S/S 2022 she had motherhood on her mind. The designer referenced  ‘Sleep walking, mothering',  ‘Communion dress’, ‘Baby teeth & lack of sleep' in her collection notes, which featured voluminous cotton nightgowns edged with brocade and broderie anglaise, girlish ballet shoes, ethereal layered petticoats, ribbon detail cardigans and beaded crowns. Spring spoke of vulnerability and strength.

Elsewhere, Molly Goddard – who is on maternity leave after giving birth to her first son – subtly alluded to her new role as a mother, looking at the baby and kids’ clothes she has collected over time, and blowing up silhouettes such as smock dresses to grown-up proportions.

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to curtail the fashion week schedule, we round up the brands which are bringing sartorial sway to the S/S 2022 menswear shows, whether presenting collections physically or online, from London, Milan, Pitti and Paris.

Kiko Kostadinov

Designing during a third lockdown and fighting the restrictions of Brexit, Kiko Kostadinov found the process behind his S/S 2022 collection creatively exhausting. Lacking the ability to travel and organically absorb inspiration, her took a personal parkour into memory, layering up fragments of narratives and influences that related to his diasporic design journey. Browsing an auction website, he stumbled across a Futurist teapot designed by Futurist artist Nikolay Diulgheroff, who Kostadinov was surprised to learn was a fellow Bulgarian, who settled in Italy in 1926.

The designer's fascination with Futurism began early in his fashion design journey, when Kostadinov began reading a book on socio-political manifestos, and he has found enduring influence in one of the Italian leaders of the movement, Giacomo Balla. The collection referenced the patchwork waistcoats beloved by Balla, also translated into shirting and coats spliced with panels of colour and shorts with pointed fronds in turquoise and brown. The textural brushstrokes in Balla's ‘Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash’ (1912) was also echoed in transparent blazers in circular folds of lace. Kostadinov was also keen to open his show – an interactive digital experience at Brixton Market – with a vest silhouette that slung low across the torso, a reference to the childhood memory of his father's interest in body building. ‘All these points allowed me to dive into the visual aspects of the collection,' he explained. ‘It's very easy to go to a museum or mark something in a book. I need to layer and layer everything in my head.'

Thebe Magugu

Magugu interweaves the facets of his South African heritage into his clothing, and for S/S 2022, the honorary guest designer of Pitti Uomo 100 was inspired by whistleblowers who challenge and stand up for corruption, who are often portrayed as pariahs rather than pioneers. Mandy Wiener's book ‘The Whistleblowers', which offers raw and evocative accounts of South Africa’s whistleblowers by drawing on first-hand narratives, inspired Magugu, who also looked to symbolic dressing traditions in Western films and the white hat-clad heroes and black hat-sporting bandits. Suiting and denim denoted tropes of masculinity, and silhouettes were swathed with archive illustrations by the political cartoonist Jonathan Zapiro. A cowboy-meets-equestrian boot also marked Magugu's first shoe design for his label.

‘We are living in a suspended moment,' mused Ami's Alexandre Mattiussi over Zoom, considering the purgatorial position in life that the pandemic has placed us in. For S/S 2022 the designer served up optimistic, upbeat and party-focused clothing, for stepping out in when we can live in the moment again. For women, this meant sheer mesh dresses twinkling with crystals and lurex bikini tops paired with slouchy tailoring. For men, tuxedo suits paired with louche transparent shirts and vests and leather suiting layered with twinkling net t-shirts. Mattiussi staged his brand's show film at a funfair, explaining that for him, the setting exemplifed ‘a beautiful escape'. He added, ‘the collection is about a promise of new beginnings'. 

Martine Rose

‘Controlled chaos is given full attention,' read the collection notes to Rose's S/S 2022 offering, which celebrated the diverse mix-and-match facets of personal style and ecclecticism over unity. For autumn, this meant traditional tailoring fused with relaxed sporty shapes, for an offbeat take on elegance, flirting with bad taste, like hairy wool wrap blazers paired with sparkly diamante studded denim, flared popper-detail tracksuit chaps teamed with a neon polo neck and smart jacket and bleached jeans paired with colour blocked cagoules. ‘Textures like crushed velvet and velour, satin and faux snakeskin are filled with the innuendo of naffness,' the release continued.

Jil Sander

Fresh from unveiling a naturalistic collection with Birkenstock, Jil Sander showcased a collection that revelled in contrast, tactility and fabrication. ‘This is a sharp urban collection about the right, and duty, to individuality and imagination,' read Lucie and Luke Meier's collection notes, which featured silhouettes with surprise personality-boosting twists, like workwear shirting accented with a pearlescent brooch, parkas layered with leopard print jackets and magenta neck scarves, brushed mohair t-shirts layered with a chunky chain necklace and sleeveless knitted jumpers imagined in colourful mistmatched panels. ‘Eclectic is a both vision and a value,' the notes concluded. What a liberating vision for spring.

Y/Project

It's been a busy S/S 2022 for Glenn Martens. Fresh from unveiling his debut Diesel collection as artistic director, the designer's spring offering for his own label Y/Project, also featured a collaboration with Fila. The link up is the next iteration of Fila's 100th anniversary celebratory capsule collections. Here, Martens has taken signature Fila staples, including the polo-shirt dress, windbreaker and hoody, and spliced and diced them into hybrid, versatile silhouettes which is synonymous with. How each piece is worn is up to interpretation, and features a mash-up of logos, and lines to drape and wrap around the body.

Phipps

Wrestlers, basketball players, footballers, new age hippies, hikers, climate crusaders: masculine stereotypes were top of the moodboard for Spencer Phipps' S/S 2022 offering, an optimistic, humorous and high-energy collection which played with stereotypes, tribalist motifs and the archetypal energies of mankind. In a time-and-location-defying show film, which used XR technology masterminded by ATO Designs, and flitted from forests to colosseums to spaceships, Phipps light-heartedly analysed what makes man today, riffing on the wardrobe of Dennis Rodman (think a gold beaded Chicago Bulls jersey and loin cloth) or a Viking rocker (cue a studded technical jacket and kilt). The designer also spoke of ‘really returning to the roots of Phipps', a label synonmous with an outdoorsy, intrepid and DIY spirit. Fabrications in the collection were technical and highly performing, and the brand worked with a factory that produces pieces for brands including The North Face. A colourful patchwork off road jacket and trousers, with leaf motif patches was functional. ‘It's windproof and rainproof,' Phipps explained. ‘Those leaves are actually fully protective shoulder guards.'

Dior

When Christian Dior travelled around America in the mid 1940s, he journey from New York to Dallas to meet the Neiman Marcus family. For S/S 2022, Kim Jones looked at the lasting impression that the Texan landscapes made on the maison's founder, bringing a contemporary flourish to the creative connection by collaborating with Houston-born rapper Travis Scott. At the brand's IRL show in Paris, complete with a catcus-lined catwalk scene, models strode in Jones' and Scott's collaborative creations: intarsia vests bearing a reinterpreted monograph incorporating the ‘Cactus Jack' initials of Scott's record label, sweaters with horn-clad figurative illustrations and flared neon suiting sparkling with catcus shaped brooches. There was a languid ease to tailoring, saddle shoulder bags were reimagined as bum bags strapped to the hip and the Dior logo reinterpreted with a scrawl and dotted with a desert flower. The collection also boasted a collaboration with artist George Condo, on a series of colourful hand-painted shirts.

Hermès

There was an elevated uplift to the brand's S/S 2022 menswear offering, which saw a return to a physical show at the Mobilier National building in Paris, after a two year absence. In the maison's show notes, Véronique Nichanian used the words, ‘optimism',  ‘energy',  ‘harmonious',  ‘freedom', to describe a collection brimming with contrasted colour and luxurious lightness, offering reinvented versions of timeless wardrobe silhouettes suited to our post-pandemic world. On sweaters, intarsia knits exploded with geometric daisies, shorts were cut into a relaxed Bermuda shape, celadon-green cotton shirts had zip-up Tunisian collars and two button suits were constructed for durable wool canvas. Chocolate juxtaposed faded rose, raw silk offset cotton serge. Nichanian added,  ‘...this creative collection is bursting with the vitality of a world reclaimed.'

Paul Smith

Escapist Mediterranean tones inspired Smith, who for S/S 2022 was fascinated by an optimistically rich colour palette, transcending from dawn until dusk. ‘It's about that pale sun yellow of the morning going through to the bright blue sky of an afternoon,' Smith – who owns a home in Tuscany – explains. The brand's offering of relaxed sports-inspired shapes, subtly nodded to the great outdoors, like transparent parkas with a zig-zag stitch evoking the details of Hobie Cat boat sails, fisherman's hats and jackets and cycling jerseys in Smith's signature kaleidoscopic stripes. Light shirting was also swathed in bold sunflower prints, nodding to the fields of flowers next to Smith's Italian home. The collection also marks a collaboration with Japanese accessories specialists Porter on a series of striped shoulder and duffle bags. ‘The son of the Porter Yoshida family was one my best friends and one of the reasons why I did well in Japan in the early days,' Smith says. ‘It was lovely making the decision to put our mixed up stripes onto the brand's bags.'

Lemaire

Layering was integral to the laid back lilt of Lemaire's S/S 2022 men's and women's offering, which served up a sublime selection of easy monochromatic ensembles screaming to be worn on bustling city streets, from utilitarian workwear to tailoring. Cue loose dark denim suits and ruched shirt dresses, oversized shirting and funnel neck jackets in caramel, stone grey, moss and navy. Following on from the brand's S/S 2021 artist collaboration with Martín Ramírez, for S/S 2022, the label have also unveiled a capsule collection swathed with artworks of American Outsider Artist Joseph Yoakum.

Rick Owens

The S/S 2022 shows have been hit with a heavy does of hedonism. Cue the Metalheadz-inspired silhouettes at Louis Vuitton, the raver-worthy neons at Loewe and the dawn till dusk beach goers at MGSM. ‘With a post-covid in view there might be a sense of frustrated appetites demanding to be doubly satisfied this summer, that might make for a voraciousness forgetting the humbling experience we all just went through together,' Rick Owens wrote in his spring show notes, reflecting on the sense of spiritual and physical abandon to come. For his fourth collection showing on the beach of Venice Lido near his home, Owens offered up a vision of considered hedonism, a hippy-centric collection abounding in dragging denim, laddered knitwear and Pagoda-shouldered structure. Owens was also interested in taking tailoring and pulling it apart, offering up its internal construction. His revellers marched with jackets with ripped sleeves and deepened armholes, reflective shield sunglasses and platform boots.

Louis Vuitton

‘Amen Break', a seven second four-bar drum loop central to seminal hip-hop and jungle, that filtered across genres and mainstream music to become the most popular loop in musical history, was a metaphorical symbol of Virgil Abloh's S/S 2022 epic collection video - directed by Mahfuz Sultan and starring Lupe Fiasco, Goldie, Saul Williams and GZA - which focused on the concept of transmitted ideas across generations and facilitating waves of change. Inspired by the life of Lupe Fiasco's father, an African drummer and member of the Black Panther Party, who grew up on the Southside of Chicago, Abloh's story centred on a father and son united by loss and crossing into a dream world. On their path, whether winding through woods of silver birch trees or witnessing samurai combat, they encounter figures of the elder and younger generations, marked by hybridised tailoring, sportswear and streetwear silhouettes, from belted suits sported with crumpled top hats to bovver boy baggy denim and rainbow leather bomber jackets.

Homme Plissé Issey Miyake

A huge rotated lamp positioned on high illluminated the S/S 2022 designs featured in the Homme Plissé Issey Miyake collection video. In style synonymous with the technical Japanese brand, the collection was divided into several categories, including the ‘Body Movement' series, featuring fluid silhouettes like sleeveless jackets and leggings with a paint and sand print tracking the undulating lines of the human body. Plus the innovative ‘Leno Stripe' series, which employs karamiori (leno weave) a traditional weaving technique that creates net like structures. These grids were transformed into vests with interior pockets and loose shorts, enhanced with a stripe detail formed by the label's signature pleating.

Burberry

Pierced, buckled up, leather-clad, there was a rebellious riff to the models who strode to an intense rave soundtrack amongst Burberry's sand dune-lined setup at London’s Royal Victoria Docks. ‘I wanted the collection to capture that free spirit of youth and its honest and daring attitude, that sense of experimentation and fluidity.... It’s a very raw energy that’s infectious, exciting and full of life. Like an awakening,’ said chief creative officer Riccardo Tisci, of the men's and women's collection, which abounded in bodily affirmation, raw seduction and experimentation. For men, oversized tees were transparent, signature trenchcoats sleeveless and decosntructed, trousers utilitarian and buckled and pocketed. For women, strap dresses had a fluid metallic appeal, outerwear was imagined in clear vinyl and with zebra print inflections and bikinis wrapped in ties around the body. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, young generations around the world have lost out on adventure. For Tisci, they'll be coming back with a bang.

Courrèges

'I was inspired by the archive fabric and shape wise, looking at the codes of the house but never copying them' says Nicola de Felice of his debut menswear collection for the heritage Parisian house, which looked to update archetypal silhouettes like a workwear jacket, 'valuable for one to wear'. De Felice nodded to the first men's iteration of a short Courrèges jacket, softly shouldered with mulitple pockets, and paired with a vinyl tank top and cap and fluid ribbed trousers. There was a contemporary sensuality to his sophomore women's Resort silhouettes – an extension of his debut for A/W 2021 – which nodded to subtle A-line silhouettes and bold cut-out designs, like sunshine yellow pinafores with a hole stamped from the chest and flaring mini-dresses paired with thigh high boots. The designer spoke or bringing a 'sharp aspect' to styles that might appear vintage, focusing on a white women's coat inspired by a 1976s style, the back crafted without a seam, subtly cocooning. 

Lanvin

In the opening to the video for Lanvin's Resort women's and men's S/S 2022 collections, a sunglasses-clad female model sits in hair and make-up, scrolling through escapist beachside images on her phone. Cue the viewer being transported into a trippy, tropical vista, courtesy of a hazy Noughties soundtrack thanks to All Saints' Pure Shores. There was an effusive, nostalgic atmosphere to a collection defined by bold, travel-inspired pieces, which had an easy mix-and-match aesthetic. Think Japanese wave painting print scubas suits paired with plaid coats and exaggerated thong flip-flops, floral print dresses with tassel trim, retro tracksuits and cropped boucle jackets teamed with mini skirts. In a beachy wooden cabin, models lounged in hammocks, played backgammon and engaged in a giggly Chinese whispers. It's exactly where you want to be.

JW Anderson

Many of us have felt nostalgia for the clothes and silhouettes we sported pre-pandemic, or for the mundane moments in life which now appear so simple and carefree. Nostalgia was also on the mind of Jonathan Anderson, who for his third photographic collaboration with Juergen Teller, mounted images of his eponymous brand's men's S/S 2022 and women's Resort collection in the foiled cardboard frames you often find edging kitsch school photographs. He was also taken by the privacy and freedom of dressing up alone in your bedroom, reinterpreting mundane silhouettes, like a striped top, slacks or camisole through a ‘voyage of newness'. Fleece tracksuits, beaded dresses and vests were splashed with a strawberry print inspired by a eighteenth century painting of a squirrel nibbling on berries, ubiquitous rubber sliders were splased with the ‘JW' anchor logo, jogging bottoms puddled like harem pants and retro sports jackets were emboldened with florals. ‘Glorification of being who you are,' Anderson added of the offering's impetus. 

Giorgio Armani

Customarily, Giorgio Armani hosts his runway shows at his brand's HQ Teatro in Milan, a majestic minimalist structure designed by Tadao Ando. It was one of the first locations to be shut down last February at Milan Fashion Week as the Covid-19 virus began spreading throughout Italy. It was prescient therefore that for S/S 2022, Mr Armani showcased his collection away from a stadium seated theatre, and in the intimate garden of his home, where his early shows were held. Titled ‘Back to where it started' the collection was an elegant ease-fuelled offering of insouciant tailoring, new suiting silhouettes, and sportswear shapes: white rolled up chinos paired with a foulard-lined single button navy blazer, Ikat jacquard waistcoats and Bermuda shorts, glossy silk safari jackets and preppy V-neck sweaters. Relaxed and refined, and debuted in a domestic setting, what could be more fitting for the new normal of today's world?

Prada

A simple summer holiday: clear sea, warm sand, a touch of tan, a concept which once seemed almost mundane in its ease, which is now so scant. Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons played on this dichotomy for S/S 2022, describing the collection as a ‘utopia of normality' and transporting Prada's viewers to a Sardinian beach landscape, which models strode into via a surrealist red tunnel. It's a skin-revealing Prada packing list for summer (a theme which has run throughout the Milan shows, perhaps a response to being shrouded under sweats for so long), featuring fuschia towelled hooded jackets, organic deck chair stripe vests and thigh-flashing all-in-ones and wiggle-detail woolen micro shorts layered with mini skirts. There was a subversive spin to these silhouettes, which also featured more traditional tailoring pieces, like ribbed cardigans, baggy suit trousers and pinstripe jackets. The soon to be most coveted piece on the beach? Bucket hats with sporty built-in sunglasses or zipped pouches for your spare change.

Fendi

Confined to one space, one city, one country for so long our personal sense of perspective have never felt so prescient. Silvia Venturini Fendi drew on this concept for S/S 2022, transporting Fendi collection viewers to the brand's Roman headquarters inside the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, which boasts panoramic views of the seven hills of Rome, the Apennine mountains and the Mediterranean Sea. There was a light sense of freedom to the collection, which revelled in both loose and body-flaunting silhouettes in sugary, pastel tones, from navel-revealing cropped jackets to long shirts sported with bare legs, transparent trench coats to pocket-detail shorts. Prints had a panoramic appeal, including a cartographic print of Rome and abstract patterns which resemled the striking strata of rock or marble, splashed over city coats or shaped into fleece. There were ‘It' accessories that appealed too, including micro Baguette bags worn as necklaces and bucket hats turned upside down and transformed into bags.

Tod's

Unsurprisingly, escape has been on the mind of many a brand for S/S 2022, whether Canali is lusting after Los Angeles or Dior is dreaming of Texas. Showcasing its collection on the staircase of the winery Cantina Petra in Suvereto – designed by architect Mario Botta – Tod's is getting a taste of Tuscan sun for spring. The Italian brand's collection was drenched in rich Mediterranean tones and revelled in silhouettes fitting for an urban safari, from washed chambray shirting to preppy V-neck sweaters. Collection highlights include a biker jacket with elbows studded with Tod's signature Gommino pads, an utterly luxurious suede hoodie and camera bags, for when life on inner-city safari gets scintillating enough for a quick snapshot.

MSGM

Italian DJ Lorenzo Senni created the heady and hypnotic soundtrack for the Milanese brand's S/S 2022 video, centred on a sun-drenched beach, and featuring models sprawled on craggy rocks, standing in shallow water on on the shoreline and floating out at sea. Founder Massimo Giorgetti looked to Stephen Milner’s photographs, from the Spiritual Good Time series, are the inspiration behind the offering, which have a surf-meets-rave sensibility, swathed in colour and print. Think off the shoulder striped sweaters, conch shell intarsia cardigans, neon shorts, Lycra leggings and cargo pants all paired with beach ready accessories, like zesty sliders, bucket hats and chunky framed sunglasses. Giorgetti is ready for the beach and he's not leaving till sunrise.

Canali

The sun-soaked setting of Los Angeles inspired the Italian tailoring label, who looked to California-cool Nineties dressing codes for S/S 2022. This culminated in louche tailoring and elegant daywear in oceanic and sunrise tones, from fuschia to moss green, aquamarine to sand, and luxurious fabrications like buckskin leather and suede. For summer, the Canali man, whether meandering in Milan or driving down Sunset Boulevard, will be sporting slouchy bomber jackets, floral silk bowling shirts and natty neck ties. The most outré ensemble? A hot pink suit paired with a white tee. 

Dolce & Gabbana

The world has experimented with a series of self-care methods in the wake of Covid-19. For S/S 2022, Dolce and Gabanna turned their attention to ‘light therapy', and to the South Italian tradition of light festivals, were areas are illuminated with a seemingly infinite array of colourful lights. The near-100 look strong catwalk collection was presented IRL at the brand's Metropol Theatre space in Milan and featured Noughties-inflected sportswear and tailoring, swathed in prismatic beads and gems. Metallic jacquards, stained glass and paint-splattered prints also featured in the offering, which abounded in nostalgic silhouettes, like oversized denim, slouchy bomber jackets and flesh-revealing shirting. 

Woolrich

The American label brings an intrepid touch to any location, and for S/S 2022 it had its sights set on both the city and the country. This meant durable and versatile men's and women's designs, with a utilitarian flair, camoflage-meets-florals print parkas in vibrant tones, grey melange tracksuits, dusty pink workwear jackets and pocket-detail shorts. The brand has used spring to celebrate its heritage, with the second drop in the offering titled 'Reimagined Americana', featuring oversized outerwear and paisley shirting.

Ermenegildo Zegna

New social spheres, new dressing codes, new normal: Alessandro Sartori mused on the new routes we find ourselves meandering within in a post pandemic-world with a film featuring models navigating different realms, from the paths of mazes to the steps of ampitheatres. The artistic director has spent the last couple of seasons musing on new requirements of tailoring, sartorial codes that merge sophistication with ease, function with flair. For S/S 2022 this was translated into silhouettes with a light elan, like collarless kimono shapes, utilitarian chore coats, long dusters, oversized overshirts and silhouettes without padding or internal construction. Fabrics were gauzy and luxurious, like featherlight nylon, silk and fluid glazed wool, tones had a water-inspired liquidity from calcite to grainy white and practical flourishes were seen in the form of padded paper leather slippers, foldable backpacks and canvas work bags.

Brunello Cucinelli

The Italian luxury house masterfully merges sartorial codes, bringing the finest materials to elegant-yet-infinitely insouciant silhouettes. For S/S 2022 this take came courtesy of tailoring which had a laid back lilt, like double-breasted pinstripe suits paired with denim shirts, Prince of Wales check jackets layered with loose jeans and white chino trousers sported with a shirt, tie and soft leather biker jacket. Softly padded suede gilets, pocket detail Bermuda shorts and plaid shirts were also Cucinelli's summer check list, with pieces imagined in organic shades, from washed aquamarine to sand.

A-Cold-Wall*

Samuel Ross has long postulated on human kind's relationship with external design forces, whether musing on man's affiliation with Brutalist architecture or how people are affected by constant geological shifts. The London-based designer summarised his brand's S/S 2022 collection in four words: 'Motion. Form. Oscillate. Converge', tenets that have new meaning after 18 months of isolation and restriction. For spring, the brand's streetwear-inflective protective silhouettes, were rendered in bold and elemental hues, with pieces like technical capes, cagoules and padded vests, cocooning the body. In the label's collection film, models strode through an urban metropolis, pacing metal staircases and tarmas, in aquamarine, orange and lime sportswear, with shielding pocket and straps, their silhouettes layered up, with totes, shoulder bags buckled to the torso and pouches strung around the neck.

Diesel

In Diesel's S/S 2022 collection film, a model surveys the red sky of a rocky planet, a symbol of the Italian brand's vision for the future, spearheaded by Belgian designer and Y/Project founder Glenn Martens. In a preview to the collection, Martens discussed his desire to reintroduce a ‘core' collection to the label, explaining that in just three months he'd streamlined the brand's supply chain into more sustainable channels, relocating manufacturers and operating through certified suppliers. Martens has bought an easy sense of the avant-garde to the brand's DNA, which spans everyday denim and sportswear. Think 5-pocket denim jeans with inbuilt Cowboy boots, jackets with a recycled paper print inspired by delivery boxes and trompe l’oeil effect tights and tops, plus hybrid designs which reflect the designer's splice and dice approach at Y/Project, like aysmmetric skirts shaped from coats. 'I wanted the belt to be the backbone of a garment,' Martens added, nodding to bandeau tops, t-shirts and jackets in-built with chunky buckles.

Arnar Mar Jonsson

The London-based utility expert nodded to Japanese and Italian designers of the Eighties, who merged 'sport and modern luxury.' This translated into technical silhouettes riffing on early mountaineering wear, including zip-detail nylon jackets and balooning trousers, jersey hoodies with circular inserts, silver cagoules and panelled jackets. Jonsson used a variety of high performing fabrications, from Loomstate Ventile and PU coated cotton, with materials naturally dyed using native Icelandic plants, Common Lady's Mantle and Thistle. Adding to this organic air, the brand's technical creations were paired with softly crocheted shoulder bags.

Qasimi

There was a soft sense of wrapping, draping and cocooning to Qasimi's S/S 2022 offering, which was presented in the grounds of St Ann's Court in Surrey, a modernist country house built in 1936, designed by renowned architect Sir Raymond McGrath in collaboration with celebrated garden designer Sir Christopher Tunnard. Architecture was essential to the structure of the collection which nodded both to stark Brutalist lines and 'muqarnas' –a geometric style of vaulting found in Islamic design. Shirting in exotic fuchsias and oranges draped in asymmetric cuts around the torso, 'tarbousha' – a woven tassel which is intrinsic to the wardrobe of a male Emirati, was used to accent khaki jackets and sweeping A-line skirts, while renchcoats were laser cut like militaristic net canopies. Lines and curves existed equilibrium, tones were head-turning and design references roving. 

Erdem

An imaginative sense of narrative inspires Erdem Moralioglu's collections, which nod to imagined adventures of both royalty and bohemians. For the brand's debut menswear collection, this sense of story was paramount, and nodded to the little sea-bound brother of Moralioglu's women, featuring ensembles inspired by figurative and textural Patrick Prockter paintings or the wardrobe of artist Derek Jarman, pottering in the gardens around his famed Dungeness seaside retreat Prospect Cottage. The youth-focused and ease-fuelled offering nodded to Jarman's knitted tank tops, worn cords and boiler suits, reinterpreted in cotton jacquard and floral printed cotton. Roll neck cable knit jumpers and striped vests had a nautical appeal, and toile de Jouy bucket hats a boyish sensibility. Moralioglu imagined city-meets-city silhouettes, with his imagined protaganists leaving a black tie affair in London, bound for the coast, sporting Cummerbunds with bright knitwear and sandals and billowing blousons and shorts.

Two weeks before London Fashion Week kicked off its first fully digital-only men’s and women’s showing, a group of fashion insiders, from Paul Smith to Roksanda Illincic, wrote an open letter to Boris Johnson and the British government detailing the incredible hardship experienced by brands post-Brexit. In the wake of the United Kingdom leaving the EU in December, brands have been left floundering in the face of ascending import and export chargers, customer dissatisfaction and new expenses encountered from producing within their home country. 

With the UK currently in its third lockdown, labels are also still grappling with the ongoing effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, with brands operating with revolving skeleton teams in their studios, or from their homes through Zoom. Brands big and small are also grappling with whether to present their collections according to London Fashion Week’s official calendar, or simply later when their collections are naturally completed. In the wake of this new informality, fashion week schedules are overlapping for the first time, with Tom Ford’s A/W 2021 show in LA (part of the New York Fashion Week schedule) taking place after London Fashion Week has begun.

Despite a deluge of socio-political drama, the concept of community remained a focal point of the A/W 2021 London shows. Nothing showed off this sense of unity more than the Institute of Digital Fashion and Soho boutique Machine A’s, A New Future project, which allowed the public to view the latest collections from brand’s including Richard Quinn, Eftychia and Martine Rose, through an AR Instagram filter, replicating a shop floor. Scannable QR codes were plastered on billboards around the city, from Shoreditch to Peckham, Notting Hill to Camden, alerting Londonders on their daily constitutional of the technology.

‘In a time where the fashion calendar feels very flat and with the industry questioning what fashion means today, we wanted to elevate the voices of talents, dissecting just that,’ says IoDF co-founder Leanne Elliott Young of A New Future. ‘An important part of our work and mission is to democratise the fashion landscape, evaluating how tech can be used to push past some of the archaic structures that the fashion industry as a whole is transfixed upon.’

One designer who finds the streets of a city essential to her output is Molly Goddard. She references the stalls of Portobello market or Japanese street style in her designs. ‘Usually I go to the library, pull research from everywhere, go to markets,’ said Goddard. For A/W 2021, she embraced a more concise development process from home, pulling from her own archive research folders and oft-referenced books including Tina Barney’s Europeans, David Douglas Duncan’s Goodbye Picasso and Terence Conran books featuring stylish people in wonderfully designed spaces. Her collection had an exuberance, optimism and ease, that celebrated British fabrics and mix-and-match thrift store eccentricity, featuring her signature mille-feuille tulle dresses, Pink herringbone tweed mini skirt suits, tartan kilts and Fair Isle sweaters, and also revived its recently launched menswear.

Optimism was also essential to Milan-and-London-based label Colville, which since its inception has embraced an effusive melting pot of references, and created covetable, well considered clothing that evolves each season. For A/W 2021, founders Molly Molloy and Lucinda Chambers created fluid silk dresses in vibrantly marbled and Arts and Crafts prints, sleeping bag coats, graphic floral shirting and chunky costume jewellery. ‘We start from a position of what we love and put on,' Chambers explained. ‘No one needs another black handbag.'

Colville's collection also tapped the 2021 fashion trend for a wardrobe we'll want to revel in when the world emerges from lockdown. This is a mindset adopted by the doyen of dramatic dressing Michael Halpern, who created a glamorous collection suited to how many see themselves emerging on 21 June, when the UK is purported to be loosening all of its Covid-19 restrictions. The designer's signature 1970s flares and mini dresses shimmered with sequins and bodysuits were swathed in leopard print. On the Fashion East catwalk, Nensi Dojaka also embraced an exuberant mindset, bringing, for the first time, flecks of fuschia to her underwear-inspired, and body-celebrating designs.

Erdem Moralioglu also posited on our post-pandemic wardrobes, with a collection that fluctuated between lounge and formal wear. In a balletic show video, the designer paired 1950s pleated skirts, round-shoulder jackets and bejewelled shirting with grey ribbed garments like leggings, sleeveless gloves and cardigans and silk pyjamas. There was a soft protectiveness to fabrics, like flows of feather trim and mohair knitwear, and models carried soft blankets instead of handbags.

‘Unashamed self-expression' inspired designer Harris Reed, who before his first show at London Fashion Week after graduating from Central Saint Martins, had already created custom clothing for Harry Styles in American Vogue, released an Instagram filter and a MAC Cosmetics make-up collection. Reed's gender-fluid and form-celebrating collection of demi-couture pieces embraces the decadence and glamour of early Noughties fashion, and featured twill tailoring frothing with ombre twill and gowns with layered petticoats, worn by male model Momo Ndiayen.

In London, designers unpacked the concept of isolation and liberation in equal measure. Eftychia's ‘Life Before Birth' video, lensed by Polly Brown, which featured an office attire-clad woman stuck indoors in a seemingly endless creative tailspin or purgatorial state of writer's block, a take on the designer's struggle with spiralling low mood during lockdown. Bianca Saunders' collection of shrunken silhouettes and water splashed-suiting, inspired by Jean Cocteau's experimental black and white film The Blood of Poet, which considers the role of the artist and influence to unnerving uncanny effect. Roksanda celebrated the power of familial companionship, shooting three generations of women, Vanessa Redgrave, Joely Richardson and Daisy Bevan, in voluminous brushstroke-swathed gowns and sleek tailoring, enganging in moments on union and solitude against the backdrop of their countryside home during lockdown.

At Burberry, Riccardo Tisci was fascinated by the concept of freedom, even sending a branded picnic chair for guests to take a seat in while watching the brand's show from their homes. Tisci's menswear-focused offering – presented in a sleek gallery-inspired setting at the brand's Regent Street flagship – touched on the unrestrained expression, featuring deconstructed trenchcoats and duffle coats and gender-fluid kilts and pleated tennis dresses. Tisci was also inspired by the nature-inclined mindsets of Arts and Crafts artists, incorporating wild motfits into his designs, photographic feather and fur prints to leather trainers with uppers resembling hooves.

As Tisci reintrepreted the outerwear codes essential to Burberry's DNA, so Tod's also dived into its own design history. The Italian luxury specialist used London Fashion Week as the platform to showcase its Legacy project, a collaboration with Central Saint Martins, which saw its signature codes, from its ‘T' logo to its Gommino stud, reinterpreted by 35 students. The research and development results are part of a digital exhibition.

Priya Ahluwalia – the London-born menswear designer who launched her label in 2018 – was awarded 2021’s Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design (in recent years an accolade won by Alighieri, Bethany Williams and Richard Quinn). There’s a fierce finesse behind her steetwear-inflected garments, which for A/W 2021 were presented in a film by Stephen Isaac-Wilson. The collection featured colourful sportswear with spraypainted prints, corduroy suiting and patchwork denim, and incorporated upcycled and eco-aware fabrics including bamboo silk and deadstock shirting. Ahluwalia was inspired by Home Going, Yaa Gyasi’s 2016 novel about two half-sisters born in the 1700s and separated at birth to dramatic socio-political effect, thinking about the symbology of migration maps, and the nature of aesthetic elements plucked from different places. Colours in her collection also evoked the vibrant tones in art works by Kerry James Marshall and Jacob Lawrence.

Ahluwalia is one of a group of emerging designers with a strong interest in repurposing fabrics. For A/W 2021, fellow Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design winner Bethany Williams created a gender neutral capsule collection of coats exclusively for Selfridges, crafted from colourful recycled blankets, sourced around the United Kingdom. For his third collection, Bulgarian designer AV Vattev presented a retro-futuristic vision of landing on the moon, inspired by 1970s silhouettes and the style of David Bowie and Grace Jones. Fifty percent of the fabrics in his collection are sustainable, including upcycled Bulgarian Halishte.

For his sophomore outing on the Fashion East line-up, Maximilian Davies also looked to the futurism of the Sixties and Seventies. The designer looked to family photographs from when his grandmother emigrated from Trinidad to Manchester, combining the Sunday Best aesthetic of her dressing for church with a Space Age Courrèges-centric spin. Davies A/W 2021 offering featured psychedelic print bodysuits and mini skirts, silk satin body-hugging suiting and round-shouldered leather jackets, that took the notion of Sunday Best but for going to a nightclub. Davies also nodded to the beach-to-party outfits sported by his sisters in Trinidad, like swimming costumes and feathered head pieces. ‘What comes to mind when you think of the sixties and seventies fashion with the mindset of Carnival? Showgirls,' Davies explained. ‘I wanted to take what exists, but make it my own. I’m reclaiming these iconic moments and references for the Black community.'

‘The fragile rebel' is how Simone Rocha described the woman behind her A/W 2021 offering: part punk part pretty, representing both the soft and thorny facets of a rose. ‘I wanted to explore new ideas that had clarity and identity,' added the designer of the collection which incorporated shorter skirt lengths and leather, like cocooning biker jackets and poufy tulle and lace mini skirts. Despite not showing her collection to a physical audience, Rocha was keen to adhere to the usual narrative pace of her collection, which flowed from harder and more protective shapes into softer silhouettes and back again. 3D roses and floral embroidery were a focus, whether trailing along the lengths of patchwork day dresses or bringing structure and volume to ruffled tulle jackets. Conscious that her collection would first be viewed through a screen, Rocha was keen to bring even more adornment and attention to detail to designs, so when they are finally viewed in store, their embellishments will astound ‘I wanted to push through the screen,' she said.

Over the last month, we’ve transitioned to viewing the world from a smaller viewfinder. As the perspective of our new parameters has shifted, so we’ve found uplift in everyday domestic details or striking beauty in the natural world, now seen largely through our windows. As fashion designers have acclimatised to this new, four wall-defined way of life, from Beijing to Berlin, London to Longiano, we’ve invited those within our creative community to document by hand what they can see from their work desk or window. Here we present our rooms with a view.

Manolo Blahnik, Bath

‘The sky was blue almost Mediterranean,’ says the footwear behemoth of the lush garden view from his bedroom window.

Maria Grazia Chiuri, womenswear artistic director Dior, Rome

A unifying Italian flag hangs from the window of Chiuri's home in Italy's capital.

Michael Halpern, London

Jars of citrus fruits and bowls of fiery chillis sit on the colour-inclined womenswear designer's work desk.

Margaret Howell, Suffolk

‘One drawing is my sheep’s trough with planted tall, reed grass. The other is my hazelnut tree, which planted itself by seed many years ago. I drew this just as it’s new leaves are coming out. At least nature is carrying on as normal' – MH.

Bryan Conway, design director Tiger of Sweden, Stockholm

Titled ‘Spring in Sweden,' Conway's sketch offers a tree-lined street scene in the country's capital.

Marco de Vincenzo, Rome

From his window, the womenswear designer can see the splendid baroque architecture of Rome.

Massimo Giorgetti, founder MSGM, Milan

Plant-festooned balconies greet Giorgetti as he looks across Milan from his apartment.

Eudon Choi, London

From the view of his kitchen table, the womenswear designer sees a selection of sculptures and stacks of his husband's copies of Wallpaper*.

Karl Templer, artistic director Ports 1961, London

A green garden view greets the artistic director from his work desk in London.

Pierre Hardy, Paris

The window view through the accessories and jewellery aficionados wood panelled apartment reveals the splendour of the River Seine.

Thom Browne, New York

The designer presents an abstract view from his Central Park West location.

Petar Petrov, Vienna

Mannequins and a cutting table make up the designer's view across his mid-century apartment and live-in studio.

Isabel Marant, Paris

Natural beauty greets the progenitor of Parisian chic from her window.

Samuel Ross, founder A-Cold-Wall*, London

The boundary-pushing menswear designer shares a domestic scene from the London-based home he shares with his family.

Maria Skappel-Holzweiler, head of design Holzweiler, Oslo

For the head of design of the family run, Norwegian brand, respite comes in watching her children painting Easter eggs, outside in a pergola.

Sean Suen, Beijing

The menswear designer, who has been on lockdown since late January, shares a domestic scene in pencil and coloured wax crayon.

Lorraine Acornley, creative director Begg & Co, Hertfordshire

Quick daily observational sketches of a plant pot on Acornley's desk, ‘explore line and materials'.

Giuseppe Zanotti, Longiano

The Italian footwear behemoth is currently residing in his home in Longiano, Emilia-Romagna, a short distance from the brand's factory.

Daniel Rosenberry, artistic director Schiaparelli, New York 

‘My window, my desk, my things and me' – DR.

Tammy Kane, co-founder and creative director Christopher Kane, London

A view of nature across a conservatory has been imagined using oil on canvas and oil crayon.

Albert Kriemler, creative director Akris, St Gallen

Lines from First Suprematist Standing Poem (1965), by writer, visual artist and gardener Ian Hamilton Finlay, greet Kriemler.

Giuseppe Marretta, menswear design director, Pringle of Scotland, London

Exhibition posters and verdant plant life offer visual distraction for the menswear designer.

MM6 design collective, MM6, Paris

The eclectic collective serve up a symbolic sketch inspired by the inversion of social structures. ‘Even so, we are still singing,' they add.

Cecilie Bahnsen, Copenhagen

A huge Scots pine tree stands outside Bahnsen's window in the Danish capital.

Erdem Moralıoğlu, London

A sketch of rooftops from Moralıoğlu's window sits amongst ready-to-wear illustrations and swatches of fabric.

Alessandro Sartori, artistic director Ermenegildo Zegna, Milan

An abstract artwork, cosy chair and Cire Trudon candles all make up Sartori's domestic set up.

Roksanda Ilinčić, London

Linck Ceramics vases – from a curated Matchesfashion collection with Wallpaper's Picky Nicky – stand next to a window plastered with a community-focused NHS poster. 

Molly Molloy, co-founder Colville, Milan

‘I look out on to a courtyard of bright yellow apartments and have a balcony full of tropical plants. When the sun is out I have the windows open, you can hear the clattering of plates at lunch time and the smell of amazing Italian dishes cooking.' – MM

Ramesh Nair, artistic director Moynat, Paris

Stacks of artist monographs and a feline friend sit on Nair's busy work desk.

Feng Chen Wang, Shanghai

Shanghai's built up skyline forms the backdrop to the menswear designer's studio space.

Gherardo Felloni, creative director Roger Vivier, Isola del Giglio 

A burnt sun setting over the ocean greets the footwear designer from his island home.

Alexandre Mattiussi, founder AMI, Paris

A window view completely free of buildings offers the natural gift of a clear blue sky.

Mood board: Each season, the imaginative, narratively-minded designer takes a historical deep dive into a female biography, be it Italian aristocrat Principessa Orietta Doria Pamphilj or the young Queen of England. For S/S 2020, Erdem Moralioglu was fascinated by the Italian model, silent film actress, and photographer Tina Modotti, who moved to the USA in 1913, before becoming a Communist activist and agent after relocating to Mexico in 1922. Moralioglu’s collection, incorporating voluminous ruffled gowns in metallic brocade, eyelet detail trenchcoats, striped capes and polka dot Victorian tailoring, nodded to the amalgamation of styles which Modotti adopted before her suspicious death in the back of a taxi in 1941, from vintage 19th century dress to utilitarian military wear.

Scene setting: Moralioglu held his S/S 2020 inside Gray's Inn Walks Gardens, one of London’s largest privately owned gardens, laid out by Sir Francis Bacon in 1608, and populated with an orchard, daffodils and wildflowers. Models walked down its extensive central gravel path, lined with American Red Oaks, with regal, emotive and otherworldly effect.

Team work: Moralioglu teamed up with Sierra-Leone born London-based stylist Ibrahim Kamara who has worked with Beyoncé, Stella McCartney and Nike. Here, Victorian sunhats, taffeta neckscarves and opera gloves were offset with floral foulard scarfs tied around the body like sashes, for militaristic, rebellious effect.

Mood board: From the works of EM Forster to Henry James, the literary canon is populated with novels that explore the results of colliding cultures. Puritanism and Europeanism. Metropolis morals and countryside ethics. Imagined narratives are often the basis of Erdem Moralioglu’s collection, and for A/W 2019, he was taken by the tale of Principessa Orietta Doria Pamphilj, the head of one of Italy’s greatest noble families, who died at the age of 78 in 2000. She had lived in an 1000 room Palazzo in Rome, and spent much of her life with her English naval officer husband, dedicated to upkeeping her family’s property, which included a castle in Apulia and an abbey near Portofino. His collection was inspired by an imagined visit the Principessa took to London in the 1960s, and featured a collusion of grand jacquard dresses and conservative twinset cardigans, short dresses sparkling with sequins and ostrich feathers or featuring inbuilt capes.

Finishing touches: Orietta’s father was anti Fascist, and during Mussolini’s reign her family’s palace was stormed by his supporters. Her father even had to go into hiding in 1943, and Orietta and her mother disguised their identities by dying their hair black. Dark feathered fascinators echoed this physical change, while net veils had both a concealing quality and Catholic severity. Knee high snakeskin boots in pop colour shades added a soupcon of 1960s.

Best in show: A black brocade suit was suitably luxurious, while an emerald silk dress with bow details and cut-out panels was demure yet daring. We’re sure Orietta would approve.

Mood board: Erdem Moralioglu revels in historical references. In recent seasons, his collections have nodded to vaudeville starlet Adele Astaire, the Queen’s jazz-loving youth and an imaginary meeting between his Turkish and English grandmothers. For S/S 2019, Moralioglu was mesmerised by the Victorian tale of Fanny and Stella, two men living as women, who were brought to trial for their seemingly immoral sexual exploits, and acquitted by its jury in less than an hour. There was a streak of subversive rebellion throughout his collection of wonderfully intricate gowns and evening looks. Flamboyant Lacroix-like bow details in candy shades, square power shoulders and splashes of colourful make-up. References to self-identity that sauntered through the dance-floors of Blitz and Kinky Gerlinky, borrowed from the make-up bag of Boy George and reveled in the rebellion of 1970s and 80s nightlife.

Team work: Hats are high on the accessories agenda for spring. Take the gothic veil covered hats at Simone Rocha or the floppy oversized sunhats at Rejina Pyo. For S/S 2019, Moralioglu collaborated with the milliner Noel Stewart on a series of identity-blurring wide hats with dark veils, which were paired with bejeweled opera gloves, naturally.

Best in show: In his show notes, Moralioglu mentioned the prominence of Darwinism in Victorian society, and the mantra of survival of the fittest versus subversive self-expression. The strongest looks were those in which Moralioglu reveled in rebellion, where historical garments became hybrids. Like a feminine rose motif overcoat with polka dot 1980s power shoulders or a voluminous cocoon dress with hyperbolic bow fastenings at the shoulders. §

Mood board: It was on visiting the House of Style exhibition at Chatsworth House last year, that Erdem Moralioglu first discovered Adele Astaire – the late sister of Fred, who enjoyed great success as a dancer, actress and singer during the 1910s and 1920s. Taken by her charisma and fearless independence, the Canadian-born, London-based designer set about imagining what the starlet would wear now. Enter plush velvet dresses, polka-dot stockings, tweed capes and crystal-embellished mules.

Scene setting: There are few better places to watch a fashion show than within the opulent confines of London’s National Portrait Gallery. Evidently, Erdem feels the same way. Guests were seated on long benches between connecting rooms at the top of the museum, allowing models to walk the runway while rubbing shoulders with some of the world’s foremost portrait paintings.

Best in show: Erdem has become synonymous with elegant evening dresses, and this season the brand’s loyal fans will be more than satisfied with the array of full-length brocade gowns, which were overlaid with a fine black polka-dot tulle that formed a train at the back of the piece for dramatic effect. The delicate velvet mules and jewel-adorned brogues were equally desirable.

Scene setting: Erdem Moralioglu transformed The Old Selfridges Hotel into a dimly lit and mysterious jazz club. The printed show booklets – placed on the chairs of guests each season – featured a set-up of the Cotton Club, a cult New York jazz bar that gained renown during the Prohibition Era. An empty club space waiting for revellers, the catwalk featured graphic chandeliers, tropical print screens, orchestral set ups, piled-up chairs, and lengths of luxurious fabrics. Inside the booklet, an advertisement for a show by Duke Ellington was juxtaposed with images of Queen Elizabeth (among them, HRH meeting the Cotton Club regular in 1958 at a Royal Command Performance). Moralioglu’s ornate and elegant S/S 2018 offering was an ode to the outfits Queen Elizabeth might have worn on a night out with Ellington at a downtown jazz club, dancing all night, concealed behind cat-eye sunglasses and wisps of cigarette smoke.

Mood board: There were sophisticated bell-shaped overcoats cut in floral jacquards and embellished with sparkling gem buttons, chic strapless dresses with rows of beaded bows, delicate puff sleeve tailored jackets, tweed suits and houndstooth fit and flare dresses. A truly regal affair, Moralioglu’s fifties-focused looks were topped off with long evening gloves, and twinkling earrings. Sparkling sandals were paired with black roll up pop-socks, seductively loose from a long night of illicit dancing.

Best in show: The designer also looked to Dorothy Dandridge for inspiration, a Cotton Club performer and the first African-American actress to to be nominated for an Academy Award in 1955. Her glamour and sexuality bought a more souped-up silhouette to the conservative styles expected of the Royal Family. One of the more outré looks in the collection comprised a cropped tweed bustier paired with a gauzy floral skirt. Layered on top was an aristocratic Argyle knit cardigan secured with a single top button, a sliver of royal-blooded skin revealed beneath.

Mood board: The ribbon-tied book of reference pictures that Erdem Moralioglu provided members of his audience with for A/W 2017 featured a series of beautiful Ottoman references, from a colourful painting of a military scene, to a black and white portrait of a Turkish woman, wrapped in a headscarf and holding onto the reigns of a white stallion. The designer, who was raised in Canada by a Turkish father and English mother, enriched his A/W 2017 collection with Islamic art-inspired details in lustrous flocked velvet and embroidery, and a colour scheme featuring yellows, browns, pinks and blues.

Best in show: Moralioglu’s signature silhouettes were all here, seen in flowing dresses with more of his traditional lace and macramé detailing, and overcoats in flocked velvet and embellished fur. A dress created from panels of black lace and mauve, gold and deep purple velvet, finished with beaded flowers, was both Eastern and Edwardian.

Finishing touches: Folkloric influences were noted in the clog-like platform shoes Moralioglu created, finished in luxurious floral fabrics with gem embellished buckles. Flatter styles, finished with criss-crossing ribbon, resembled traditional Turkish slippers.

‘Grayson Perry got in touch,’ recalls Erdem Moralioglu of the email he received inviting him to join the Royal Academy’s committee, an honour that puts him in the company of Ron Arad, Thomas Heatherwick and David Bailey. ‘I’d met him at the Turner Prize a few years ago, but didn’t really know him. So yes, I was thrilled.’

The London-based fashion designer has a serious art habit, and word of it is now spreading. Earlier this year, he guest-edited the first Sotheby’s Contemporary Curated sale in London. He began collecting eight years ago, and his latest acquisition is a Tracey Emin watercolour bought from White Cube during Art Basel Hong Kong. Scanning his personal art inventory (he’s currently renovating his London home, so much of his collection is in storage), he adds, ‘I love portraiture. There are so few pieces that don’t have a face!’

His first purchase was a Nan Goldin photograph, Yogo in the Mirror, followed by a Peter Doig and a Wolfgang Tillmans. His collection also includes Rineke Dijkstra (‘I love the formality of the matadors post-battle,’ he says), Larry Clark and Anne Collier, whom Raf Simons used to shoot his Kvadrat collection. ‘The Collier of these women holding cameras is one of my favourite pieces,’ he says.

Moralioglu’s fascination with faces continues in works by Kaye Donachie and Japanese-French painter Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita. ‘Something attracts me and I have to hunt it down,’ he says of his approach to collecting, a passion that has escalated since he opened his first London store a year ago. Located in Mayfair and designed by his partner, architect Philip Joseph of P Joseph, it launched on the brand’s tenth anniversary. ‘I don’t think anyone could design that space more sensitively than someone who has known me since my very first collection as a graduate at the Royal College,’ he reflects. The flagship became a personal obsession for the pair, who spent their weekends in Belgium scouring a quarry near Antwerp for Sainte Anne marble (which furnished grand 18th century homes, and is found at Versailles) and ironmongers in Ghent for doorknobs.

‘What’s so interesting about the space is that it hadn’t been renovated since the 1960s. It was a huge project architecturally,’ he says, referring to the spiralling staircase that was cut anew, but feels like it has always been there. Furnishings are by Sigmar and Carl Aübock, while on the walls are Daniel Silver watercolours, a 1983 David Hockney photo-collage, and drawings by Jean Cocteau and Andy Warhol.

The retail space has also fostered a new intimacy with his customer and, in turn, influenced Moralioglu’s design approach: ‘I think about her from the moment she wakes up until she goes to bed. How she would live, what she would wear, what she would collect,’ he says. And while Moralioglu’s clients may swoon over his signature florals, they are certainly not wallflowers. His clothes possess a femininity that’s bolstered by sophistication and strength. His A/W 2016 collection began with models channelling All About Eve and Rebecca, working bias-cut sheaths in velvety jacquards and embroidered sequins. (Moralioglu collaborates with mills in Italy, Switzerland and Austria on his own exclusive textiles, laces and prints.)

The designer’s narrative-based productions, executed with set designer Robin Brown, put each season’s muse into context – be it a 1960s Paris pied-à-terre or, for this season, an MGM soundstage. The A/W set came complete with dusty chandeliers glowing from their wooden storage frames, decaying Romanesque pillars and out-of-commission wicker love seats, as his embroidered tweed tailoring and elegant 1930s-era gowns evoked Old Hollywood. ‘I’ve never been afraid of femininity,’ he muses, ‘partly because I have a twin sister. When I was a kid I only ever drew women. I was interested in art with women in it. I was interested in the way women moved. I’m asked about my fascination with lace and flowers, but what I find interesting is that they’re all things that imply the effeminate.’

That said, Moralioglu knows how to exercise restraint. ‘My mother was very minimal,’ he reflects. ‘She didn’t collect designer clothing or couture. She wore only a little red lipstick by YSL, and she always had skirts with side pockets so she was comfortable and able to move.’

Moralioglu was born in Canada to a British mother and Turkish farther. When he decided to pursue a career in fashion, his father (a chemical engineer) was more understanding than his mother. ‘Mainly because where he had grown up, tailoring was a trade,’ he says. ‘My mum saw it more like a decadent, wild thing.’

Moralioglu’s childhood involved a lot of travelling. ‘Half my family was in the UK and the other half in Turkey,’ he says. ‘We would go from Birmingham to Istanbul, so the contrasts between my grandmothers’ houses were amazing. But I think my parents were kind of homesick. I got the sense they both wanted to go back to their home towns, but they were together and so in love. Maybe my work has a connection to that daydreaming, of taking someone somewhere else.’

He continues, ‘I always wanted to create something that has a permanence, something that you go back to, something seasonless. I find it wonderful that Yves Saint Laurent could create trench coats in the 1960s that are still considered beautiful today.’ The designer recently did an event in Kuwait where he was taken aback by the women he met wearing his dresses that went back five, even ten years. ‘I wonder if that time of the dress-of-the-season is over?’ he muses. ‘I think what’s really important about my approach is that I take my time to explore everything slowly,’ he says. ‘I don’t want to rush anything.’

As originally featured in the September 2016 issue of Wallpaper* (W*210)

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Erdem website

'I started collecting about seven years ago, firstly with photography, and that's where my connection with Sotheby's began,’ says Erdem Moralioglu, just days after his celebrated A/W 2016 London Fashion Week show. He's surrounded by art works that will feature in the auction house’s first ‘Contemporary Curated’ London sale, guest edited by Moralioglu and taking place on 15 March.

Looking at a cluster of paintings that includes works by Georg Baselitz, Lucian Freud, Louise Bourgeois and Marlene Dumas, Moralioglu explains his selection criteria: ‘You can see the touch of the human hand across them all,’ he says, before acknowledging George Condo’s Untitled miniature, 2000, as his favourite lot.

‘It’s a fascinating process working with an auction house through all aspects of the sale, from cataloging to getting to grips with the body of work,’ Moralioglu continues, having also celebrated his brand’s 10th anniversary at the art specialist’s London S2 gallery last December. ‘It’s been an amazing learning curve, which I was really happy to be a part of.’

Renowned for his modern use of innovative textiles and original prints, the first work the Royal College of Art alumnus bought himself was a photograph by German Wolfgang Tillmans, and he has since moved onto illustration and painting for his personal collection. Opening his first retail space on London’s South Audley Street last year provided further impetus to invest. Moralioglu currently has a David Hockney photo collage and drawings by Andy Warhol and Jean Cocteau in store, while his latest purchases include works by Candida Höfer and Rineke Dijkstra.

But back to Sotheby's' lot: the expansive auction comprises 205 works with an average price point of £11,000, and spans American figurative painting, abstraction, sculpture and photography, with highlights including Josef Albers’ Study for Hommage to the Square: Framed Sky ‘C', 1970, and Yayoi Kusama’s Fear of Death, 2008.

‘The selection is an extraordinary mix,’ says Joanna Steingold, Sotheby's deputy director and head of 'Contemporary Curated'. ‘It’s not just works of £100,000 plus, it is starting from £500 through to a top lot by Antony Gormley at an estimated £200,000,' she explains. ‘We really want to invite the new curious collectors with this sale, and encourage people who might not have thought that they were able to buy from Sotheby’s before.’

The 'Contemporary Curated' series was first launched in the United States in 2013, and has since featured auctions guest curated by American author and avid collector James Frey, Tamara Mellon, Anna Sui and NFL player Keith Rivers. The next London satellite will take place in September this year.

’It’s a fascinating process working with an auction house through all aspects of the sale, from cataloging to getting to grips with the body of work,’ explains Moralioglu, pictured in his London store with some of his curated works. ‘It’s been an amazing learning curve, which I was really happy to be a part of’

INFORMATION                                                                                                                        

The 'Contemporary Curated' London auction takes place on 15 March at 10:30am. The pre-sale exhibition, also guest curated by Moralioglu, will be open to the public 12–14 March at Sotheby’s London. For more information, visit the Sotheby's website

ADDRESS

Sotheby’s
34–35 New Bond Street
London, W1A 2AA

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Scene setting: Erdem Moralioglu’s Old Hollywood screen sirens were right at home on his A/W 2016 set that resembled a retired MGM sound stage. Designed by Robin Brown and executed by Family productions, chandeliers glowed from their wooden storage frames, while mix matched sandstone urns, odd ballroom chairs, decaying Roman-esque pillars, out of commission wicker love seats and bare lattice arches filled the dimly lit Old Selfridges Hotel.

Best in show: Nobody does femininity quite like Erdem, and especially when it comes to event dressing. However, he also knows how to best off set that femininity, and so his 1930s era metallic lace dresses, with their ruffled bodices and soft peplums, were grounded with sturdy leather boots. Other standouts included his Forties, Lauren Bacall suiting (in a graphic black and white tweed or embroidered plaid variations), closely followed by a fringed Twenties ensemble, lavished with gold tinsel that sashayed down the corridors of the jumbled film set. The designer’s heavily embellished capes also carried a screen siren delicacy, albeit fused with an unexpected fluidity in spite of the weight of their decoration.

Finishing touches: Elegant, jewelled hair clips held tousled side-parted manes off the face and also highlighted the models’ tender drop earrings that were similarly encrusted with glittering coloured gem stones. 

INFORMATION

Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans

Scene setting: Starting in pitch darkness, the Erdem show began with a moving carriage way of female pioneers clutching at basic furnishings and suitcases, barely visible under dimly lit porch lights to the sound of close thunder and heavy rain within a former Kings Cross freight yard. Erdem Moralioglu’s models soon appeared walking two earthen runways up a checking station footbridge on one side and down the other. Paired with the clothes’ Victoriana semblance, the whole scenario had a mid 19th century frontier spirit to it just like a scene from The Piano. In actual fact the backstory referred to Abraham Lincoln’s 1862 Homestead Act, which gave single women and widows (mainly streaming into America from Europe) the right to their own plot of land in the West if they stayed five years.

Mood board: There is always an undercurrent of darkness to an Erdem show, no doubt to contrast his deeply romantic feminine ruffles and lace, and this season it came from this nod to how isolated life must have been for these women alone on the prairies. Moralioglu’s predominant Victorian silhouette was cut high at the neck with cascading tier of flounces to the mid calf. Some came with balloon sleeves that liberally puffed at the elbow, while others were cut-away from the shoulder altogether, showcasing an on-trend flash of the clavicles. These floral silk portrait dresses soon segwayed into virginal white cotton or ticking stripes, which brought to mind a lady’s undergarments on washing day.

Best in show: Moralioglu’s dolly lace cocktail dresses had a graphic undercurrent to them that will see them being swept away by the red carpet in good speed.

INFORMATION

Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans

Givenchy: We returned to last season's high school hall for Riccardo Tisci's A/W jumble show. A miscellaneous match of items including arcade games, helmets and out-of-date TV screens decorated the multi-coloured court lines of the Parisian sports hall. The assembled audience watched from a range of velvet armchairs or foldaway garden chairs

Louis Vuitton: For the French brand's second run at its impressive Louis Vuitton Fondation location, all the action was transported outside to an installation of transparent, Buckminster Fuller-esque domes

Louis Vuitton: Designed by Es Devlin, the geodesic structure's seating was splashed with a mix of futuristic tangerine, brown and stark white as natural sunlight flooded the catwalk

Thakoon: Thai-American designer Panichgul Thakoon joined forces with Jonathan Beck on behalf of Dizon Inc to play with high impact colour for Thakoon's A/W set. Tinted film room dividers created a somewhat psychedelic effect as light bounced off them in all directions

Chanel: The luxury brand once again fulfilled expectations (and appetites) with its transformation of the Grand Palais into the 'Brasserie Gabrielle'. Three operational pop-up bars were equipped with Parisian waiters, coffee and newspapers, while the space was set with red leather banquets, wood boiserie panelling and bistro tiled flooring.

Prada: Pastel hues and metallic panelling turned Via Fogazzaro into a futuristic realm for Miuccia Prada's A/W offering

Prada: The show's 'Softer Pop' clothes floated through Mrs Prada's pastel space odyssey made up of diamond shaped silver flooring and ceilings

1205: Palm trees and tumbling foliage were the striking accoutrements to 1205's greenhouse show. The Barbican Centre's central conservatory provided a jungle escape for Paula Gerbase's utility inspired collection. The contrast of brutalism and green leafage set a serene scene for the elegantly tailored collection.

Dsquared2: In comparison to the past season where set designer Stefano Grossi re-created an actual apartment interior for the Caten twin's show, for A/W he went with a more graphic approach. A heavenly white staircase cascaded from a dimly lit, tiled marble entrance from which the models stormed the venue

Edun: New York's Skylight event space was left unembellished for this season's Edun show, leaving the venue's Stefan Beckman block installation to take centre stage. The set designer's studio created twin geometric structures that provided a narrow entrance for Edun's multi-cultural collection

Moncler Grenoble: On Valentine's Day evening we were welcomed into Moncler's 'love factory' inside the Duggal Greenhouse warehouse space within the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Set against a crimson draped backdrop, the action took place about a vibrant red, heart-shaped box. This later opened to reveal an array of his 'n' her Moncler outfits, each primed for a winter sport, before the male and female models took part in a kissing finale

Opening Ceremony: Humberto Leon and Carol Lim once again partnered up with Spike Jonze for their latest unorthodox showcase. This season, the white washed walls of New York's Cheim & Read gallery were plastered with a collage of photography by the American creative, which included profile images of both actresses and musicians

Tommy Hilfiger: There was a rush of all-American spirit surrounding the Tommy Hilfiger show in New York. For the brand's 30th anniversary Randall Peacock's design studio transformed the Park Avenue Armory into a Gridiron football field. Kitted out with 'Hilfiger' scoreboards, floodlights and even a Jumbotron, the stadium waited for the 'players' to storm down the green and compete in sportswear's finest

Dior: Upon returning to the Musée du Louvre, Raf Simons conjured a feminine glass box for Dior's A/W presentation. Producers Bureau Betak juxtaposed the soft pink flooring with thick black pillars and clean white benches, while huge windows offered striking vistas of the sandstone Cour Carrée

Wunderkind: Within the walls of the modern art emporium that is the Palais de Tokyo, autumn's Wunderkind collection was presented under a graphic mirrored enclosure. The concept, by Edwin Lemberg and Christian Weinecke, manipulated the spatial area through huge slanted mirrors that reflected faceted views of the collection around the clinical venue.

Emilio Pucci: Milan's Palazzo Serbelloni offered a palatial farewell to outgoing designer Peter Dundas. The Napoleonic room posed as a grand backdrop for Dundas' astrologically inspired collection, with its gold plating and crystal chandeliers shedding a glistening glow on all below.

Philipp Plein: In true Plein style, the showman's audience was given another thrilling performance to remember. A live music set by Azealia Banks kicked off proceedings, while a giant rollercoaster raced around the darkened theatre hall - save for the banner #pleinwarriors that shone in bright lights

Moncler Gamme Rouge: The outerwear giant took to the great outdoors for its Gamme Rouge showing at the Grand Palais. Equestrian models rode over an autumnal runway that was strewn with a patchwork of crispy brown leaves and green foliage

Kenzo: As creative sets go, Kenzo definitely rose to the occasion for A/W with its moving Paris installation. A 20-foot tall backdrop glided effortlessly across the enormous show space before splitting into six different blocks. The structures then rotated on the spot, revealing foiled metallic sides, which shone rainbow reflections onto Humberto Leon and Carol Lim's collection

Erdem: Back at London's Old Selfridges Hotel, Erdem Moralioglu enlisted the help of set designer Robin Brown to resurrect his A/W muse's fictional 1960s Parisian pied-à-terre

Erdem: Under the moody, shadowed lighting, the stained yellow wallpaper and tousled furniture brought a personal narrative to the artful presentation

Erdem: The retrofied apartment took some seven days to construct and fit-out

Versace: Dontella Versace's models arrived through a commanding red and black backdrop derived from the outer edges of the house's Medusa logo. Although the collection itself was more modest this season, the mood remained seductive thanks to the venue's dim boudoir glow and scarlet Perspex runway

Lacoste: In comparison to last season's themed set, for A/W Bureau Betak gave the spotlight to the brand's sportswear. The Lincoln Centre theatre offered a raw setting with white marking lines leading models around giant concrete pillars

Mary Katrantzou: One of the Royal Horticultural Halls was turned into a girl-power paradise for the Mary Katrantzou's presentation.

Mary Katrantzou: Bureau Betak created a spongy Barbie pink studded runway for the designer's cocktail attire to bounce over.

Proenza Schouler: The New York-based brand ran its sharply tailored collection down a stone tiled catwalk for A/W. Under low-hung lights, a backlit installation loomed over the venue's warm atmosphere.

Antonio Marras: The Milanese designer's gilt embellished set posed the perfect setting to compliment a show dedicated to Italian style icon Benedetta Barzini. Ornately printed walls offered an elaborate backdrop, while 18th century rugs marked the runway

Tod's: The Italian brand took over the Baroque setting of Milan's Palazzo Litta for its A/W runway presentation

Tod's: Deep red walls and gold seating dominated the opulent setting. The Italian brand's models entered from ceiling-high doorways as elaborate mirrors reflected the brand's A/W looks

Fendi: Swiss artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp's geometric abstractions boldy coloured both the Roman house's A/W show space and collection. Taeuber-Arp's distinctive style resonated in the graphic prints that ran along each side of the Via Solari venue

Hunter Original: Within the industrial surrounds of London's Albert Embankment Warehouse, Hunter creative director Alasdhair Willis continued his water world theme. This season, a trio of tumbling waterfalls flowed through the darkened venue

Maison Margiela: Although Paris' Grand Palais if often a rather, well, grand affair, Maison Margiela's high gloss white tunnel provided a sterile, blank canvas for John Galliano's first ready-to-wear collection

Marni: Consuelo Castiglioni 's Amazonian A/W 2015 collection was presented in an industrial-style den. The raw set space featured worn down plastered walls, rough grey pillars and a waxy red runway that drew the eye to the main event

Scene setting: Erdem Moralioglu enlisted the help of set designer Robin Brown to resurrect his A/W muse’s fictional 1960s Parisian pied-à-terre within London’s Old Selfridges Hotel after seeing a similar installation that Brown recreated for Frieze Masters.

Mood board: His fictitious art collector’s clothes drew from the bolthole’s faded wallpapers that were brought to life with metallic treads, while the set’s evanesce glamour was seen through his raw edged seams.

Best in show: The designer’s laser-cut leather peplum skirt suit and his floating ostrich feather floral dresses that were cut close to the figure at the front, yet possessed a Cristóbal (Balenciaga)-era couture swing to the back.

Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither was Erdem Moralioglu's A/W set which was modeled after a post-war Parisian bolthole. In fact, it took seven days to resurrect his retrofied apartment within central London's Old Selfridges Hotel.

'The initial idea for the set came from when I visited Frieze Masters and saw Robin Brown's installation The Collector,' explains Moralioglu. 'Robin created the apartment of a fictional art collector, living in 1960s Paris.  I loved the idea of creating an environment that really explained the story of the character this season; who she is, where she is in life, how she's feeling.'

Produced by Family, the set's residential realism was dressed with furnishings from Sigmar London: balcony window panes still harboured city soot stains, unpacked suitcases littered the hallways, as ceramic lamps with worse-for-wear shades rested on stacks of vintage magazines. Adding to the lived-in feel were cut-crystal glasses strewn about at random and cans of hairspray, which no doubt set his muse's combed-back ponytails. 'It was interesting to collaborate with Robin and have not only the clothes formulate her character but also her environment,' he added.

There was a time not so long ago when buyers flocked to London to fill their order books with the city's plethora of digital prints. However, given the natural evolutionary state of things, it seems fair enough to say that we are now in the advanced stages of phase two: an equally enticing embroidery epidemic. Rather than pixels, London's design stars are painting with texture, and none more poetically than Erdem Moralioğlu. Set against a tropical forest of purple-tinged foliage, the designer looked to Victorian biologist and explorer Marianne North as a springboard, transporting fern frond emblems onto his decadent plunge-necked dresses, lined with tiny 19th century button loop holes and tied with delicate spaghetti straps at the shoulder. The procession of tiered, calf-length gowns that followed were born from an undulating line-up of either thickly-worked guipure or the most fragile of fine needle lace - the latter sporting high collars and ruffles much like Victorian undergarments. But it wasn't only needlework on parade: Moralioğlu added raw-edged tweed and print in the form of softly ruffled tea dresses back into the mix, before texture flew in the window with an aviary's worth of feather work in exotic hues of midnight green and blue. His models' long, solitary braids and tattoo-like, flat lace-up Nicholas Kirkwood gladiator sandals, only further served to seal the performance's couture-weight spectacle.

There was a time not so long ago when buyers flocked to London to fill their order books with the city's plethora of digital prints. However, given the natural evolutionary state of things, it seems fair enough to say that we are now in the advanced stages of phase two: an equally enticing embroidery epidemic. Rather than pixels, London's design stars are painting with texture, and none more poetically than Erdem Moralioğlu. Set against a tropical forest of purple-tinged foliage, the designer looked to Victorian biologist and explorer Marianne North as a springboard, transporting fern frond emblems onto his decadent plunge-necked dresses, lined with tiny 19th century button loop holes and tied with delicate spaghetti straps at the shoulder. The procession of tiered, calf-length gowns that followed were born from an undulating line-up of either thickly-worked guipure or the most fragile of fine needle lace - the latter sporting high collars and ruffles much like Victorian undergarments. But it wasn't only needlework on parade: Moralioğlu added raw-edged tweed and print in the form of softly ruffled tea dresses back into the mix, before texture flew in the window with an aviary's worth of feather work in exotic hues of midnight green and blue. His models' long, solitary braids and tattoo-like, flat lace-up Nicholas Kirkwood gladiator sandals, only further served to seal the performance's couture-weight spectacle.

There was a time not so long ago when buyers flocked to London to fill their order books with the city's plethora of digital prints. However, given the natural evolutionary state of things, it seems fair enough to say that we are now in the advanced stages of phase two: an equally enticing embroidery epidemic. Rather than pixels, London's design stars are painting with texture, and none more poetically than Erdem Moralioğlu. Set against a tropical forest of purple-tinged foliage, the designer looked to Victorian biologist and explorer Marianne North as a springboard, transporting fern frond emblems onto his decadent plunge-necked dresses, lined with tiny 19th century button loop holes and tied with delicate spaghetti straps at the shoulder. The procession of tiered, calf-length gowns that followed were born from an undulating line-up of either thickly-worked guipure or the most fragile of fine needle lace - the latter sporting high collars and ruffles much like Victorian undergarments. But it wasn't only needlework on parade: Moralioğlu added raw-edged tweed and print in the form of softly ruffled tea dresses back into the mix, before texture flew in the window with an aviary's worth of feather work in exotic hues of midnight green and blue. His models' long, solitary braids and tattoo-like, flat lace-up Nicholas Kirkwood gladiator sandals, only further served to seal the performance's couture-weight spectacle.

There was a time not so long ago when buyers flocked to London to fill their order books with the city's plethora of digital prints. However, given the natural evolutionary state of things, it seems fair enough to say that we are now in the advanced stages of phase two: an equally enticing embroidery epidemic. Rather than pixels, London's design stars are painting with texture, and none more poetically than Erdem Moralioğlu. Set against a tropical forest of purple-tinged foliage, the designer looked to Victorian biologist and explorer Marianne North as a springboard, transporting fern frond emblems onto his decadent plunge-necked dresses, lined with tiny 19th century button loop holes and tied with delicate spaghetti straps at the shoulder. The procession of tiered, calf-length gowns that followed were born from an undulating line-up of either thickly-worked guipure or the most fragile of fine needle lace - the latter sporting high collars and ruffles much like Victorian undergarments. But it wasn't only needlework on parade: Moralioğlu added raw-edged tweed and print in the form of softly ruffled tea dresses back into the mix, before texture flew in the window with an aviary's worth of feather work in exotic hues of midnight green and blue. His models' long, solitary braids and tattoo-like, flat lace-up Nicholas Kirkwood gladiator sandals, only further served to seal the performance's couture-weight spectacle.

There was a time not so long ago when buyers flocked to London to fill their order books with the city's plethora of digital prints. However, given the natural evolutionary state of things, it seems fair enough to say that we are now in the advanced stages of phase two: an equally enticing embroidery epidemic. Rather than pixels, London's design stars are painting with texture, and none more poetically than Erdem Moralioğlu. Set against a tropical forest of purple-tinged foliage, the designer looked to Victorian biologist and explorer Marianne North as a springboard, transporting fern frond emblems onto his decadent plunge-necked dresses, lined with tiny 19th century button loop holes and tied with delicate spaghetti straps at the shoulder. The procession of tiered, calf-length gowns that followed were born from an undulating line-up of either thickly-worked guipure or the most fragile of fine needle lace - the latter sporting high collars and ruffles much like Victorian undergarments. But it wasn't only needlework on parade: Moralioğlu added raw-edged tweed and print in the form of softly ruffled tea dresses back into the mix, before texture flew in the window with an aviary's worth of feather work in exotic hues of midnight green and blue. His models' long, solitary braids and tattoo-like, flat lace-up Nicholas Kirkwood gladiator sandals, only further served to seal the performance's couture-weight spectacle.

There was a dark baroque beauty to British-Turkish designer Erdem Moralioğlu's latest collection, held up by rounded 1960s shapes. Rich with surface texture, the designer did not hold back after last season's palette cleanse, as black velvet merged into jet beaded guipure lace. Few and far between were his earlier prints, replaced by ornamental jacquards, intricate embroideries, or jewel-encrusted florals that clung onto satin cocktail dress confections. The designer had equally grand visions for his tailoring as metallic jacquards formed swing coats and cocooned suiting, while shiny black-stamped crocodile made for the coolest of capes. In addition to the piled decoration, there was also a theme of unravelling as though Moralioğlu could not quite resist the allures of the haberdashery department. Engrossed, the designer added tiny bunches of tassels to embroidered floral evening shifts, and spliced his voluminous car coats at the elbow, just as he played with softly sloping hemlines on asymmetrical party dresses, perfectly balanced by Nicolas Kirkwood's embellished flats.