Long before Coco Chanel opened her atelier\u2019s doors on Paris\u2019 Rue Cambon in 1910, women flocked to designer boutiques in the hopes of personifying their preferred brand\u2019s style DNA. To wear Chanel is to embody classic French luxury. Slipping on a Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress is symbolic of career success. Donning Ralph Lauren is synonymous with all-American elegance. Because at their core, the best designers are dream makers who create and perpetuate fantasies replete with whimsy and magic, tantalizing consumers with the infinite possibility of becoming someone else.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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<\/div>\nFor Montr\u00e9al-born Erdem Moralioglu\u2019s eponymous label Erdem<\/a>, this metamorphosis is different. While the 19-year-old, London-based, ready-to-wear brand is renowned for its signature floral prints, precise tailoring and romantic silhouettes, Erdem\u2019s oeuvre is one of continual evolution. Rather than repeatedly tapping into a fixed look, the British-Turkish designer seeds each collection with an inspiration that is, more often than not, rooted in the spirit and stories of powerful women. The essence of these period characters is then delicately spun through every design until it becomes the fashion house\u2019s next seasonal story.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a real narrator, like a real storyteller,\u201d affirms Susie Sheffman, a creative director and the former fashion director for FASHION<\/em> magazine. \u201cHe weaves together all of these kinds of disparate historical and cultural references, literary references, and then he creates a muse or a character.<\/p>\n
Whatever he\u2019s inspired by \u2014 and it could be something that he saw at the National Portrait Gallery in London, or it could be a Greek vase, or Maria Callas, or the Queen of England \u2014 he then extrapolates and mixes these influences together. And then, [he] dreams about what her perfect wardrobe would be.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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Over the years, these muses have ranged from photographers and writers to dancers and painters, and even the aristocracy. The late Italian-American photographer Tina Modotti\u2019s 1920s and \u201930s series capturing class solidarity among Mexican workers was channelled into Moralioglu\u2019s Spring-Summer 2020 collection of flat-brimmed hats and bright, multi-coloured floor-length dresses with puffed sleeves. Susan Sontag\u2019s historical novel The Volcano Lover<\/em>, which explores the 18th-century love triangle between Emma Hamilton, Sir William Hamilton and Lord Nelson, influenced the following year\u2019s cropped jackets and asymmetric skirts sprinkled with mismatched prints. Five progressive artists from the 1930s Weimar era \u2014 Austrian fashion photographer Madame d\u2019Ora, and German dancers and painters Anita Berber, Valeska Gert, Jeanne Mammen and Elfriede Lohse-W\u00e4chtler \u2014 were evoked via jacquard dresses, fringed flapper-style hemlines, lacy gowns and the carbon-black bustiers Moralioglu presented in the Fall-Winter 2022 line.<\/p>\n
His leaning towards unconventional, powerful women as muses likely stemmed from his relationships with his late grandmothers and mother, and his twin sister Sara. He has even, in past media interviews, referenced his great-grandmothers as inspirations for his creativity. These bold leading ladies are, however, almost contradictory to the softness of the clothes themselves. While Moralioglu designs everything from trench coats to trousers, he\u2019s renowned for his floral dresses. Exquisitely fashioned with mixed textiles and embellishments, they are often delicate and ethereal, sometimes prim and garden party-ish, yet always elegant and feminine. As a curious juxtaposition to the women whose stories narrate the designs, Moralioglu\u2019s dreamy craftsmanship underpins the strength of their character.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a gay man,\u201d notes Nicholas Mellamphy, the creative director for Hudson\u2019s Bay\u2019s luxury retail space, The Room. \u201cWe\u2019re totally enamoured by unconventional women that kind of break with the norms. The women that are icons to the gay community are all slightly different. They don\u2019t conform to the rules, for the most part. His clothes are strong and powerful, and they\u2019re still feminine. [They\u2019re] for a woman with that kind of profile. It\u2019s actually a very beautiful kind of symbiotic marriage of those two elements.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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It makes sense that the women who gravitate towards and don the label are equally complex. Kate Middleton, whose style favourites range from Alessandra Rich to Alexander McQueen, wore an elegant mid-length Erdem skirt suit at Westminster Abbey\u2019s Commonwealth celebrations last year. Crafted in navy blue with a delicate white floral pattern, the ensemble was a departure from the Princess of Wales\u2019 formal coat dresses. The tailored corset-like peplum jacket and its matching skirt with a flared hem fluttered a peek at the white-with-navy floral fabric lining as she walked. It was a combination of pretty and, in royal tradition, composed. It wasn\u2019t the Princess\u2019 first time in Erdem either. In 2011, Middleton launched her Royal Canadian Tour with Prince William in the designer\u2019s blue \u201cCecile\u201d floral lace dress. Other loyalists have included models, actresses and entrepreneurs such as Ashley Olsen, Zendaya and Alexa Chung. Political royalty, from Michelle Obama to Sarah Brown, have worn his clothing, while royal family member Meghan Markle is also a fan.<\/p>\n
Vogue<\/em>\u2019s editor-in-chief Anna Wintour has championed Moralioglu since his label launched in 2005. Yet, it can be said that actress Keira Knightley put the brand on the map. While she first wore Erdem at the Toronto International Film Festival, not long after the brand launched, fashion historian Bronwyn Cosgrave attributes Knightley\u2019s 2012 appearance at the Golden Globes as the label\u2019s breakout moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe timing was pretty perfect,\u201d recalls the Costume and Fashion: A Complete History and Made For Each Other author and former British Vogue editor. \u201cKeira was wearing Erdem, and I was at the Golden Globes when she actually came onto the red carpet. She is a Chanel ambassador, but you know how some of these actors [like] Natalie Portman and Cate Blanchett, they\u2019ll use one ceremony to wear an independent designer just to help because they love it. And she [Knightley] would wear Erdem to high-profile events. She was the first, I would say, one of the earliest major celebrities to wear his work in the spotlight.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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Now, at 47, Moralioglu shines bright. He is one of the most successful and lauded designers in the world. The Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University) School of Fashion and Royal College of Art alum\u2019s accolades include the 2008 British Fashion Council\u2019s Fashion Forward, the 2010 UK<\/em> Elle<\/em> magazine Designer of the Year and the 2015 Canadian Arts & Fashion Canadian Designer of the Year awards. His flagship boutique in London\u2019s posh Mayfair neighbourhood, which opened in 2015, has also stood the test of time, while his $1,400 to $6,200 CDN dresses sell at prestigious retailers like Holt Renfrew<\/a> in Toronto, Simons in Montreal and Bergdorf Goodman in New York City. But what really makes Moralioglu\u2019s work stand out, says Mellamphy, is respect.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe respects the process, he respects the industry, he respects the fabric, he respects the women,\u201d he explains. \u201cHe respects the history \u2014 he references these iconic elements of the past, and he makes it modern.\u201d<\/p>\n
This season\u2019s collection which debuted at the British Museum in London is just that \u2014 a modernized interpretation of history in the form of his latest muse: the late Duchess of Devonshire, Deborah \u201cDebo\u201d Vivien Cavendish. While the Wait for Me! Memoirs of the Youngest Mitford Sister<\/em> author has been a source of inspiration to artists for years, Moralioglu was granted exclusive access to the Duchess\u2019 personal archives, complete with the 1940s floral drapery (rumoured to have been proffered as courtesy to family connections) that hung in her family\u2019s estate, Chatsworth House in England. Nods to Debo\u2019s sensible country style and love of 1950s ball gowns, Elvis Presley and bug-like jewellery are layered throughout the collection.<\/p>\n
Swaths of the Chatsworth\u2019s antique flowery cotton drapes were incorporated into the line\u2019s sumptuous, full-skirted evening dresses, a voluminous opera coat and a Barbour waxed jacket. Sparkling crystal studs on leather jackets and elbow-length black leather gloves paid homage to the King of Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll. In reverence to Debo\u2019s affinity for creepy-crawlies, large dragonfly necklaces and brooches adorned necklines, while insect antennae-esque tiaras perched atop several models\u2019 heads as they walked the runway. \u201cHe\u2019s created a point of view that has become singular, and that\u2019s why, I\u2019m sure, he\u2019s able to continue to build on the themes and codes that are so present in his career,\u201d adds Mellamphy. \u201cThere\u2019s just a deep respect for craft. Fifteen years ago, I used to say he was the new establishment, and now he has become the establishment.<\/p>\n
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