The ongoing London Fashion Week coincides with a momentous time in Britain’s history. Queen Elizabeth II will be laid to rest in a funeral ceremony attended by thousands of people, including several world leaders on the 19th of September. While some designers had chosen to move their showcase dates around to pay their respects to the deceased monarch, many designers like JW Anderson, Christopher Kane, and Nensi Dojaka went ahead with their runway shows on the weekend as they believed the show must go on, especially when the Queen was a vocal champion of the British fashion industry.
One such designer was Erdem who chose to celebrate the Queen’s service to the United Kingdom with the Resort 2023 collection he sent down the pillared hallways of the British Museum in London.
The Turkish-Brit designer dedicated the collection to the late monarch’s memory and began his show with one of her most iconic quotes “Grief is the price we pay for love,” the Queen’s words of condolences in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in the USA.
In true Erdem fashion, the collection comprised of vintage silhouettes and florals in abundance. This time, the Resort line featured black faille corset dresses with trailing black ribbons, black net veils, and shredded details that referenced the historic mourning dress.
The designer closed the show with a white corset dress, complete with a full skirt and an extended train. The skirt was covered in black netting and floral embroidred tuille. According to the designer, the look was reminiscent of the Queen’s coronation gown.
Erdem’s muse for the collection was the Queen’s longtime florist Constance Spry, who was also responsible for the flower arrangements for the monarch’s coronation back in 1953.
The floral patterns favoured by 18th century Dutch painters served as huge inspiration for Spry’s works and glimpses of the same could be seen in Erdem’s Resort 2023 collection too.
The designer, who has gone on record to say that fashion has always been a mirror of what is happening around us, couldn’t have reflected the ongoing mood of the world at the moment any better than this. What do you think?
- Quick links
- Erdem
- Queen Elizabeth
- London Fashion Week
- designers
