The adjectives being thrown around after Erdem Moralioglu's show—pretty! gorgeous! lovely!—haven't been heard much at the London shows. There's been plenty of buzz about the nineties trend, of course, but there's always room for a well-done, individualistic something else. Erdem provided just that with a collection that he said, "was about Perry Ellis and early-American sportswear, combined with something decadent and eighteenth century, like lace and tapestry."
In his third season since winning the Fashion Fringe competition, he worked at refining the ideas with which he began: dresses, pleating, and a taste for odd botanical and ornithological prints. Encouraged by the fact that his most expensive things have sold best, and counseled by his twin sister, Sara—"My best critic!"—he came up with a great blend of highly wrought laces and encrusted embroideries, smartly contrasted with cleaner, sportier elements, like raincoats cut from traditional Mackintosh fabric, that kept the mood from becoming too sweet.
Some of the pieces, like a trapeze dress made from panels of rose-patterned lace and cream satin pleats flowing from a heavily embroidered yoke, are beautiful one-offs. Many were executed using deluxe French lace donated by Sophie Hallette in a sponsorship deal, and made by people who used to manufacture for Roland Mouret. "I lucked out this season," he declared after the show. "I felt much more comfortable with this collection, like I found my feet."
