Erdem’s Autumn Winter 26 collection marks the twentieth anniversary of the independent house. The collection is called The Imaginary Conversation, and it pays homage to the voices and stories of Erdem’s protagonists over two decades of dialogue expression in fashion.
The collection brings characters together from the past twenty years, with their looks and garments re-contextualised and re-imagined. Here we see the gowns and coats from Debo and Maria Callas, Madame Yvonde and Radclyffe Hall, in a different guise. They have been renewed with cut or silhouette or material or motif, remixed. As the conversation has continued, so the garment has evolved with each character over time.
As with each of Erdem’s collections, we are held in the tension of
a particular moment; a sense of metamorphosis hangs in the air, caught between merging and emerging. We witness Erdem’s women and the clothes they embodied variously draped and layered. Pieces are patchworked and garments are held up against each other. The troupe brings Adele Astaire and Marianne North back before us; we are reminded of a piece of music written by Duke Ellington for Queen and the ceremonial poignancy of the Velazquez infanta.
Familiar tropes are inverted or undone as echoes of the past with a different volume in the present. It is as if she has taken everything out of her wardrobe to recreate something new.
There is a beauty to her madness. A bridal dress from Erdem’s first show in 2006 today returns today, with a voluminous gathering of skirts that feels simultaneously riotous and defiant; uplifting in every sense. It is a poetic statement about Erdem’s past and future; as much a celebration of what has been as what is yet to come. The conversation continues.
credits
Styling—Marie-Amélie Sauvé
Casting—Ben Grimes
Hair—Eugene Souleiman for Kevin Murphy
Makeup—Fara Homidi for Fara Homidi Beauty
Nails—Joely Frain for Glossify
Skincare—SkinCeuticals
Millinery—Noel Stewart
Production—OBO
Music—Lukas Heerich
Photography—Jason Lloyd Evans
Video—InDigital
All images courtesy of ERDEM.