For SS25, Radclyffe Hall, joins the long list of Erdem’s strong female fashion show muses. The collection was inspired by her novel ‘The Well of Loneliness’, a pioneering queer text, which tells the story of Stephen Gordon, a woman living as a man, and her relationship with Mary Llewellyn. It was first published in 1928 and banned after just a few months. The text, and Hall’s openly gay relationship with Una Troubridge (their pictures were plastered on his moodboard), got Erdem thinking about the oppositional relationship of masculine and feminine dress codes and identity.
The show opened with one of several trouser suits beautifully tailored in collaboration with Sextons of Savile Row. It was followed by flounce hemmed flapper dresses and tea dresses, some worn with masculine jackets and all in Erdem’s ravishing print palette. Nobody colours it better. Intense crystal embellishments on cape-like cardigans and drop-waist lace gowns added to the heady atmosphere. The clothes – gorgeous and grand, more than held their own against the backdrop of the British Museum’s Ionic columns. Erdem makes special clothes for special occasions.
Photography by Jason Lloyd Evans.
erdem.com
