For pre-fall, David Koma drew inspiration from the arresting yet perilous Arctic region. As usual, the designer kept a singular muse in mind, and this time it was DeeDee Ann Jonrowe, the female Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race record holder. “Not only was she a groundbreaking presence in the male-dominated sport, she also had incredible style—for example, she wore an enormous pink jacket with ruffles, which I love,” the Tbilisi, Georgia-born designer said at his east London atelier. “From that as a starting point, I was pushed to go bolder, and more experimental with my silhouettes.”
Although each part of the collection may have had its own textural story to tell, they all felt concise as a whole. There were sensually draped jersey and crepe cut-out dresses, a signature for the brand, featuring crystal-encrusted collars with plush leather piping, which referred to Jonrowe’s dog sled harnesses. In keeping with the theme, there were also exaggerated fluffy details on gowns, jackets, and skirts in ostrich feathers and Mongolian shearling.
The leather and puffer outerwear pieces—padded moto-style coats, belted parkas, and cropped jackets—gave further dimension to the overall offering. A standout was a painstakingly hand-embroidered plexiglass floor-length dress that erred on the haute couture side of construction. “As you can see on the back [of the dress], the amount of stitches it took to piece this all together is mind-blowing,” asserted the designer. Elaborate workmanship and couture-level details —might be an area the designer could explore further, given that it added a unique layer to his repertoire.
