Peer into this crystal-dripping, leather-and-feather–trimmed, lace and Lurex, knit and neon collection, and you’ll see how Christopher Kane is smashing it. Part showgirl, part cozy; strong on tailoring, stunning on dresses; and irresistible on accessories—this is one of those seasons where Kane’s undercover-kinky glamour shines.
Granted, he may not have made it easy to see at first glance—what with the odd setting of his Pre-Fall lookbook shoot, which turned out to be a ceramics heritage museum in Stoke-on-Trent, the center of the English pottery industry. Kane went there as part of his extension studies from his hit Spring collection, in which he peeked behind the suburban net curtains of Cynthia Payne, the proprietor of a squeaky-clean brothel in South London in the 1980s. Here, Kane’s girls stand among galleries of precious china, a subject linked with his curiosity about the status symbols and fetish objects that furnish ordinary British domestic life.
One creative idea leaped directly out of the cabinets and onto a couple of clutches and a sweater printed with Staffordshire figurines titled Princess and Romance—future Christopher Kane collectibles. But really? A spot-the-reference guide is hardly needed as an added attraction. There were so many desirables—the dress with one white and one black trumpet sleeve, the patent boots and shoes with sparkling fringe, the jewelry, the chic coats—that the whole lot might well trigger a mass smash-and-grab raid.
