Christopher Kane could not host a presentation this season due to the coronavirus pandemic. In these extenuating circumstances, Vogue Runway has made an exception to its policy and is writing about this collection via photos and remote interviews.
“Naturotica. It’s a word we came up with when we were designing this is in December,” says Christopher Kane, “because it goes back to what I’ve always been interested in: science and nature.” Everything we look at that occurred pre-pandemic seems weirdly changed from the perspective of locked-down domesticity. Kane, working at home in East London with his partner and Bruce the dog feels no differently, but the fact is that this collection was designed and made before the horror took hold, and now it’s safely delivered to his e-commerce site—with a cameo appearance from Bruce.
Back then, Kane was already thinking about making “a stripped-back collection,” true to his own repertoire of “sharp tailoring, flounces, bell skirts, and chain mail.” It never had a show of its own, just a few turns on a model in his shop during one-on-one appointments in the depths of last winter. And who knows? This may be one of the ways forward for fashion designers: just producing a condensed number of looks they believe in, when they’re good and ready and up for offering it.
The enforced pause has made Kane think even harder about that, while painting and drawing in his non-Zooming hours. “This is a chance to break free,” he thinks. Old formulas of performing to the demands of seasons and markets, of producing shadow collections watered down from previous shows are fast becoming a thing of the past. And creatively, that can only be a good thing for independents like Kane, and for the reinvention of what fashion is meant to be throughout the industry.
