It’s easy to lapse into a semi-dream state when studying Erdem’s clothes. Particularly this season, somehow: He’s captured something oddly evocative in the drifting of point d’esprit, the flow of flowery fabrics, the slightly out-of-focus fluffiness of feathery headdresses. It’s “only” a Resort collection of course—one never destined to walk a runway, at that—but this designer is not one to execute anything by halves. Almost, you could say he’s redoubled what he does, here, by shooting everything in nonidentical pairs rather than duplicates.
Here’s an idle thought: Is that doubling-up anything to do with the fact that Erdem is a twin—who is engaged to be married to a twin who has twin brothers and twin nieces? In fact, Twinniness was part of his story. In his large, duck-egg-blue office in London’s East End, the designer had propped up his inspiration boards as background information. One of the photos he’d pinned there was Diane Arbus’s famous image of twin girls, among a collage that also included work by William Eggleston and blurry imaginary portraits of young women by the contemporary painter Kaye Donachie (whose work Erdem collects). Okay, there is no literal correlation with the clothes, but they’re all apiece with the psychological landscape he’s created and populated with girls going to and fro, wearing lists of lovely attire. This season, the standouts? A short trapeze dress with a caped back. A pink and silver brocade bustier gown with detachable balloon sleeves. The long, polka-dotted chiffon romantic things with their empire, ribbon-tied waists. And, then, a bit of a surprise among all the double acts: two trouser suits with radically differing cuts, one wide, one neatly tailored. Each as compelling as the other.
