Erdem Explored the Masculine-feminine Divide for Spring 2025
Thanks to a certain presidential candidate, pantsuits for women are getting a global spotlight, and Erdem Moralıoğlu cast his vote for tailoring, opening his spring show in London with a slouchy, double-breasted pinstriped number, made in collaboration with Sextons of Savile Row.
But then a shimmering flapper dress with a flounced hem immediately followed, queueing up a “push and pull of masculine and feminine” in a ravishing collection which exalted the designer’s fine fashion storytelling, formidable dressmaking and a painterly sense of color and print perhaps only bested on the contemporary scene by Dries Van Noten.
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The inspiration was English writer Radclyffe Hall, whose famous novel “The Well of Loneliness” is considered a groundbreaking work of lesbian literature, though it was banned shortly after its release in 1928, he explained backstage in his scholarly manner.
Moralıoğlu’s mood board was plastered with photos of Radclyffe, who frequently wore men’s clothing, and her partner Una Troubridge, a sculptor partial to the loose, low-slung and decorative dresses of the time.
The designer loaded his collection with coded symbols of lesbian love, from the monocles dangling from buttonholes to the embroidered violets scattered between the pinstripes on suits.
He also filled it with extremely covetable and gorgeously embellished clothes, headlined by handsome tuxedo jackets and cape-like cardigans scattered with crystal embroideries in the style of vintage crystal necklaces.
The dresses were lovely, and felt more spontaneous and less period-stamped than in the past, given Moralıoğlu full immersion into historical worlds and the characters to which he’s drawn. He used denim for some lightly panniered dresses, and ghostly cyanotype prints of lace dresses from the 1920s fronting loose slip and shift styles.
Backstage, he struggled a bit to find the vocabulary for this easy-to-like show, but finally concluded that “there was something kind of relaxed about it.”
The accessories stood out: masculine monk strap shoes and loafers, but with demonstrative tassels and metallic finishes.
The designer also introduced his first handbag, a wedge-shaped style cut from a single piece of leather, topped by a metal handle in the form of a stem and rosebud. He’s calling it the Bloom bag.
For more London spring 2025 reviews, click here.
Launch Gallery: Erdem Spring 2025 Ready-To-Wear Collection
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