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There was a deeply personal theme to Erdem’s Fall/Winter 2023 collection, which debuted at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London this morning. In the past designer Erdem Moralıoğlu’s influences have been as disparate as the lost art of tapestry and the British poet Edith Sitwell. But this season he sought inspiration closer to home–literally. Two years after moving into a renovated Georgian townhouse in the trendy London suburb of Bloomsbury, Moralıoğlu crafted a collection that paid homage to the house’s unexpected history. In the 1800s, the home served as the “Home of Hope For The Restoration of Fallen Women”, an evocatively name shelter which offered housing for widows, and other women “without means”.
Based on Moralıoğlu’s research, more than 3,000 women passed through the home’s doors throughout the late 19th and early 20th century. Among his favourite anecdotes about the place? The story of two young women who were locked out for missing curfew, and spent the rest of the night drunkenly rioting on the streets outside. This image, of women “locked out in the rain on a hallucinogenic bender” became the foundations of F/W ‘23. Victorian-style dresses were slashed into two-piece sets, the top a sexy wrap dress that stopped at the midriff. Ruffled lace dresses were sheer and finished in vibrant canary yellow. Full silk skirts in vivid jacquard were styled with deconstructed men’s style shirting.
The narrative was aided by the beauty look created by makeup artist Jane Richardson and hair stylist Anthony Turner. Wet-look hair, smudged smokey eyes and fresh clean skin—the end result was the kind of women one would hope their ancestors had been: carefree, rebellious, and effortlessly glamorous. One couldn’t watch proceedings take place without thinking of Vivienne Westwood, whose presence has been felt throughout London Fashion Week this season. Like Westwood, Erdem experiments with the signifiers of Britain’s past—corsets, harnesses and bustles—and reimagines them with a supremely modern twist. British fashion is in safe hands, and owes untold amounts to Westwood’s legacy.
