London Fashion Week has been a little half-in, half-out this season. Many of the week’s biggest draw cards—JW Anderson, Burberry, Christopher Kane—are not showing on the official schedule, while those that are being staged IRL are showing to hyper-limited crowds, or opting for one-on-one individual appointments. Each designer is adapting to our not-quite-post-pandemic moment in varying ways including, and for British style stalwart Roland Mouret that meant commissioning the French-Nigerian actor and director Magaajyia SIberfield to craft an immersive 15-minute short film named Terma.
Shot on location in Greece over the past summer, Terma is a modern retelling of the ancient myth of Ulysses, told from the perspective of the goddess Hera, who represents women, marriage, family, and childbirth. “Inverting the trope of independent and sexual women portrayed as a danger to men in the original myth, the heroines in Terma save Ulysses and put him back on course to continue his journey,” explains the film’s notes. Mouret gave Silberfeld full creative control in the creation of the film, his only directive was to create a story that empowered women, in the same way he endeavors to with his designs.
As for the clothes themselves, Mouret’s tight, 35-piece Spring/Summer 2022 outing was an ode to easy feminine glamour inspired by two of his long-term muses: Charlotte Rampling and Nina Simone. The opening look, a printed cotton caftan dress worn with oversized sculptural earrings—evoking the same Grecian wanderlust that Terma radiated—set the tone for the collection, which went on to include a remarkable array of easy evening wear. A black sequin jumpsuit was a highlight, as was an 80s-style off-the-shoulder cocktail dress with an emerald green bodice detail, and high-necked Grecian-style gown, tied at the waist with a hot pink rope belt. The whole collection struck the right chord for what women are looking for out of fashion right now: eye-grabbing, playful clothes that speak to a renewed social optimism (cue: daywear in bold primary colors and dresses crafted with flattering drapery) that still managed to feel wearable and unintimidating.
