A sense of melancholy and a remembrance of things past seem to be permeating quite a few of the collections this season. That relentless cheerfulness and upbeat color palette that are often a hallmark of the Spring shows have been rejected by some. And Giles Deacon's collection could be seen as one of the mopiest of the lot. "After last season, I was satisfied with the direction we were going in, and I decided I wanted to do a non-flowery summer collection," he explained. "I wanted a melancholy to it and none of that summer fun fun." That's not to say that moping around can't be quite enjoyable at times, too—especially when it comes to a remembrance of the early to mid-nineties, in Deacon's case. He is from a generation that was fundamentally shaped by that period in pop culture and fashion. The era is seen as a golden age for London, when style magazines ruled, personal style was all, and both mainly formed fashion.
To convey that mood, Deacon turned to Glen Luchford's photography of the period, writ large, or rather blown up, to monumental proportions as full photo prints on a variety of dresses; they appeared painterly on silk gazars and chiffons. The two are longtime friends who reconnected recently over Instagram, where Luchford has been posting his early photography and some of his unpublished Polaroids. They had the starring role here, with the ghosts of a young Kate Moss, Amber Valletta, Amanda de Cadenet, and Guinevere Van Seenus staring out from the picture planes and the silken folds of material.
Deacon had wanted something with "clean lines [that was] less historical" this season, and it was these dresses that provided it. The whole collection was styled with Adidas trainers—a combination of Shell Toes (Superstars, to give them their official name) and Gazelles. That again took the edge off the costume drama, as well as offering another nod to the nineties. But nobody can be that melancholy for that long. The rest of the collection spun around a motif of pink and purple mouth prints and crystal appliqués. It looked like an almost nod to the Rolling Stones logo—Georgia May Jagger was in the show, and it could have been modeled on her pout. Or it might have been an homage to Katie Grand's gap-toothed grin. The stylist of the show, she's also a longtime friend and collaborator of Deacon's. They too met in the early nineties. What sat less easily was a section devoted to bats, yes, bats—Deacon often goes off on these tangential trains of thoughts for his own amusement, and this is where the train ended up this time. It brought to mind less melancholia and more of the Scooby-Doo opening sequence. Saying that, there was a short black layered dress in this section, with tight tulle pleats under a shorter transparent shift embroidered with jet-black beads. It was the most beautiful dress of the collection.
