london fashion week: erdem
(images via wwd)
sometimes—i must allow—there are times a number of those houses exhibiting at london fashion week tend to run together for me. it’s not that i don’t respect and love what they’re creatively up to, or that i don’t find many of the collections brilliant (i do). but with such an emphasis on print and colour, there are times i begin to scratch my head, wondering, ‘which one is this again?’ as the list of the likes of clements ribeiro, peter pilotto, and erdem begin to fuse into one. i know i’ve covered each of their wares before, but sometimes recalling just who did what can be something of a challenge.
but then, all the same, sometimes i’m shocked by an absolutely fetching and fabulous collection, like the one erdem (whose work, for pre-fall 2012, opt has covered only once before) turned out for the s/s 2013 season. and really, i honestly hope it will allow me to help distinguish the label from its competitors, although i also wonder that perhaps some of these houses ought consider spreading out, showcasing somewhere else (as preen has done in recent—save this one—seasons) to help better differentiate their work. but again, that’s no negative reflection here, and i found erdem’s spring range sublimely wearable and charming.
and so. for this turn on the london catwalk, uk vogue described the show as an assortment of “sherbet shades - all fizzy orange, lemon and pink - and the prettiest, prettiest array of dresses. These were what ‘ladylike’ must look like in the mind of a young girl, her wildest, sweetest fashion dreams come true…Lace and crochet, snakeskin and florals, little beads and flecks of neon and other times large splashes of them - they all worked their way on to pencil skirts and demure fitted dresses, umbrella-full skirts and mini sheer skirt and pencil combinations. Erdem signatures really.”
“So we had a sheer bespeckled skirt in putty blue, overlaid with jewels and letting, just enough, the mini skirt beneath to be seen. They came in yellow and nude and featured as part of dresses too. It was a textural delight - pretty and sweet in all the ways that pastels are but only this time incarnated in neon. And the addition of the skins combined with lace on cocoon day coats was a great step forward from a designer we know does pretty so well, but from whom it’s nice to know can do something else too,” they concluded.
and style explained that designer erdem moralioglu’s drew inspiration from “the work of Zenna Henderson, one of the first female sci-fi writers. She created a mythos based on The People, alien refugees from a distant planet. Erdem imagined the women trying to fit in on Earth, but remaining perpetually outside. He patchworked his signature lace with python to suggest a reptilian Otherness. And he created what he called ‘uncomfortable color combinations,’ blending pastels with the lurid tones of a toxic spill….he also explored the idea with the nothing-is-quite-what-it-seems quality of organza-veiled jacquards and brocades, and python masquerading as glazed silk mikado, or the illusion of lace that was actually hand-embroidered PVC.”
meanwhile, according to wwd, “(t)he designer spliced together unexpected textures and colors starting with the opening look: a dress and blouson jacket that married brown snakeskin to powder blue satin and lace. Gradually, the collection accrued more artificial-looking elements, from the 3-D flowers on guipure lace tops and A-line skirts embroidered in searing colors, to the vivid gemstones caught on tulle overskirts.”
” there were these reptilian influences…I liked the idea of these science fiction B movies and aliens coming down to earth and trying to fit in with earthlings - dressing how they imagined humans would have dressed in the 1950s,” the telegraph quoted the designer as saying, before going on to report that “(m)ulti layered dresses, with narrow or fuller skirts, composed of multiple elements that fitted together like a jigsaw. Some resembled skirts and blouses, but most were dresses….Strapless bodices came with sheer long sleeved tunics. It was gloriously grown-up yet also airy and enchanting. And the reptilian bit was actually python, interspersed with lace. That does sound loopy doesn’t it ? But it was also truly, madly gorgeous.”
finally, uk vogue related that “Erdem’s new florals radiated with hot hues more commonly found on Mars. Organza silk dresses were woven with neon orange, baby blue, and yellow petals that were like artificial colors in a box of candy…A power shortage cut out the lights midway through the show…In some ways that moment only served to highlight the special effect of the clothes, and you could imagine how the Day–Glo embroidery would shimmer like traces of very chic kryptonite in a dark room. The silhouette, on the other hand—a wasp-waisted fifties line that was finished with a ruffled collar or a bejeweled neck—spoke to a feminine approach to dressing that finds its footing in the real world.”
(see the collection video here)
