Erdem’s romantic heroines often look straight out of the pages of a 19th-century novel, dressed in beautiful toile de Jouy florals and puff-sleeved Empire waist gowns. The London-based designer has spent most of his 20 years immersing himself in art exhibitions and fashion archives, including the world’s largest collection of fashion at her V&A, the UK’s museum of decorative arts and design. It has a peculiar appearance. And recent seasons haven’t been far from Gen Z’s penchant for bras and hip cutouts as tops that permeate so many other runways. As such, that doesn’t mean he’s stuck in the past.

Erdem’s Spring 2023 collection, which is on display today in the British Museum’s Greek Revival column in London, has, of course, come at an important time in British history. London Fashion Week coincides with the late Queen Elizabeth II lying in Westminster Abbey. This is expected to draw up to one million people to the UK capital, including hundreds of royals, heads of state and heads of government. — Paying tribute to the late monarch ahead of tomorrow’s funeral. Monday’s shows and presentations have all been canceled, with some brands such as Burberry choosing to reschedule for later in the month. and most of his compatriots, including JW Anderson, Simone Rocha, Christopher Kane, Harris Reid, Chopova Rowena and Nensi Dojaka, who have long defended the British fashion industry and celebrated its rise to the monarch. As a tribute to the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design, we believe the show must take place this weekend.

The Queen’s life and times have often been the standard for Erdem. His Resort Her 2023 collection was inspired by the arrangements of her longtime florist Constance Spree for her coronation in 1953. “The best way for the industry to support British designers is to attend shows, shoot collections and buy collections. ”

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Spring 2023

In dedicating this collection to the Queen’s remembrance, Erdem began the show’s notes with an epigraph, “Sorrow is the price of love,” the Queen’s famous mourning after the 9/11 attacks. rice field. He’s gone back in history as a point of reference this season, pumping out a series of black faille corsets his dresses that explode with 18th-century relic embroidery and Old Masters prints. While many looks featured black bows draped in the back, black net veils, or shredded details referencing historical mourning dress, the closing look was an optic white corset dress with a full skirt and extensions. The padded train and skirt are covered in black couture netting and floral embroidered tulle. It looked like a negative of the Queen’s coronation gown.

More broadly, Erdem was inspired this season by the process of restoring art. In particular, I witnessed an 18th-century embroidered dress revived with intricate tulle beneath its structure, and his damaged 15th-century oil painting brought to life on the basis of his 17th-century dress. etching. “My studio, his team and I spent a lot of time behind the scenes with conservators and restoration teams at the British Museum, the National Gallery, the Tate Britain and the V&A,” he recalls. “I was thinking about the forensic passion it takes to dedicate a life to bringing a work of art to life. Some restorers can work on a piece for up to 20 years. Yes, and the way the line between restoration and habitation blurs.”

Spring 2023

That last word—obsession When dedication— sounds similar to Erdem’s own creative process. Intelligent, thoroughly researched, progressive, always seeking deeper understanding. The Montreal-raised designer, whose parents are British and Turkish, championed diversity and inclusion long before they were industry buzzwords. He was the first designer to collaborate with stylist Eve Kamara, earlier than Virgil Abloh, and currently working with Gabriela Kalefa Johnson.

Erdem creates skirts, sleeve lengths, and neck-high silhouettes that appeal to the Middle Eastern modest fashion clientele. His fans include Nicole Kidman, Michelle Dockery, Alexa Chung, Katherine, the Princess of Wales and many women around the world who don’t want to bare it all: “Fashion has always been inclusive. There should be,” says Erdem. “Why make something that only certain body types can wear? If something is well designed, it should fit everyone.” We have decided to stock sizes from to UK 22.

“In the end, fashion has always been a mirror of what was happening in the world,” asserts Erdem. This has never been clearer than with his Fall 2022 collection honoring the pioneering Weimar artist, unveiled in London on February 21, three days before Russia invaded Ukraine. . Erdem’s show in a fashion season whose Instagram feed becomes a surreal juxtaposition of women and children fleeing rockets launched in Kyiv and the business as usual in other European capitals. was one of the first and one of the few shows he took seriously. Address the existential threat of authoritarianism. Erdem showed off an almost entirely monochrome lineup in favor of his signature florals. A Sally Bowles-inspired bustier was paired with a midi dress and lace gown, paired with studded elbow-length black gloves and a sequined boa.

Autumn 2022

“I saw an incredibly powerful exhibition at the Barbican. in the night Erdem describes his fall 2022 inspiration for 2019, which chronicles cabaret culture and revolutionary art emerging from the shadow of looming war. “There were so many similarities between the present situation and the past. I was fascinated by the fact that women artists, in the face of oppression, became pioneers in a particular field of avant-garde expressionism, which was their form of protest.

How does Erdem find their starting point each season? “I think it’s important to keep evolving as a brand and as a person,” Erdem answers. “My creative process always starts with research, then builds a story, and that’s where my collection begins. Sometimes it takes me in unexpected places.” There is none. “When it comes to the themes that carry over from the last runway collection to this collection, they are chapters in the same book, so they are inevitably related to each other,” Erdem adds.