Erdem Moralioglu took the vague theme of historical echoes for his Resort collection. The notion of one decade looking at another cropped up as he was watching Visconti’s L’Innocente: “Interesting because it was made in 1978, I liked the way they saw the 19th-century Belle Epoque costumes,” he said. “But things get less weighed down in theory with pre-collections. It also just took me on to thinking about the ’70s, tunics over trousers, all the things women did to style themselves with scarves in those days. And then there’s the Madonna thread in these pictures.” What, Madonna?
It turns out that Erdem designed the original version of the lace and polka-dot dress in this collection for a recent award show performance. She wore a couple of things made by him in it, thanks to Ibrahim Kamara, the young, visionary London stylist. Erdem’s lookbook, with all its typically eccentric “twinning” of models, was a collaboration with Kamara too; they worked together with the young photographer Sam Rock to create the sense of madcap, frenetic energy and movement in the poses of the girls as they work their floral prints, billowy sleeves, and headwraps.
It may be an interim collection, which needs to show range and variety, but there’s no less Erdem-esque elaboration and magic going on in touches like his penchant for oversize bows, printed tights to match dresses, and, lately, polka dots. What stands out most is the grand fabulosity of his holiday party dresses—particularly the paired versions, one white, one black, of a high-waisted zigzag lace-trimmed dress, and finally the dreamy, demi-caped chiffon scattered with minute polka dots, whose delicacy can only be described as a confection.
