Although London usually plays second fiddle to the Paris, New York and Milan fashion weeks, in the past few seasons, people have really started noticing the cool, slick designers of Britain.
Paris is littered with them, favouring British designers such as Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen and John Galliano over the homegrown french ingénues.
Although many British designers choose to show elsewhere and not in their native country, the recent runways of London have been getting a lot of buzz for eclectic talents that have a distinct English sensibility. A standout of the past few seasons, (Christopher Kane aside) is Erdem Moralioglu, who has been slowly working his way up to delivering very strong collections. His work uses a slight sense of surrealism with proportion and shape that allows the fabric to flow.
A strange obsession with artistic botanical prints, couture pleats and boundles of lace linger in Moralioglu’s work. Frills aside, his work captures a certain liveliness that caters to dreamy, harmonious girls who never appear to care too much about what they are wearing. There is also a certain sense of ease in his clothes using classic shapes and styles with artistic techniques that dazzle.
Keira Knightley is a frequent fan, donning Erdem’s pleats and lace at several promotional events.
Stayed tuned as to what this half-Turkish, half-English designer can do, as he ventures into new territories while keeping true to his tried and true methods. It’s safe to say, we’ll all need to learn how to pronounce Moralioglu!
Photos courtesy of tFS forums
