Last night, British-Turkish designer Erdem Moralioglu unveiled a collection where the line between memory and imagination is thrillingly blurred, drawing from the evocative portraits of artist Kaye Donachie. Their collaboration, sparked years after their time together at the Royal College of Art, began when Erdem commissioned Donachie to paint a portrait of his late mother. What followed was a powerful exploration of art’s ability to do more than reflect the physical - it delves into the very essence of its subjects, preserving not just likeness, but the emotions and stories that define them.
Donachie’s work is far from literal. Her portraits aren’t about what’s seen on the surface but about what lingers beneath: feelings, memories, and auras. Her technique is rooted in abstraction, creating pieces that resonate more like emotional echoes than figurative depictions. Faces in her portraits become sensations - stories told not through realism but through mood and instinct. It’s a ghostly, almost spiritual process, one that exists on the edges of reality and imagination, where paint becomes a vehicle for emotion.
In this collection, Erdem channels the conversation between artist and subject. Donachie’s portraits of women - some figures of history, others of the unknown - embody feelings, emotions, and ephemeral traces of time. These portraits exist as "footnotes in time," capturing shadows and souls in a moment, but never quite settled into permanence. Erdem takes these archetypal feminine forms and imbues them with Donachie’s ethereal palette, making the collection feel like a living artwork - a narrative of light and shadow, between the tangible and the imagined.
The colours evoke the feeling of something cherished and lost - deep nightshade shades give way to soft pastels and muted florals. There’s a shimmer to the collection, from black spike sequins that catch the light to cloqué weaves and threadwork appliqués that feel like the fabric of a distant memory. Shredded lace and hand-frayed ribbonwork speak to the quiet decay of time, a delicate and haunting nod to the transient nature of all things.
The silhouettes are timeless in their femininity but skewed in a way that feels cinematic. Sculpted bell skirts, hourglass cocktail dresses, and cocoon coats create a play on volume and proportion, each piece feeling like a frame from a larger, untold story. Slashed necklines and exposed seams take apart the idea of elegance and reassemble it in a way that feels fresh, each look a fragment of something much bigger.
The show itself, set in the iconic British Museum, was nothing short of unforgettable. As the models descended the grand staircase, it felt almost like they were sculptures coming to life - emerging from the stillness of the exhibit into reality. Each step added to the drama, with the tension between history and modernity palpable in the air. The space, majestic and timeless, elevated the collection to new heights, transforming the presentation into the ultimate fashion week experience. Art, history, and fashion seamlessly merged in a way that felt almost surreal, as though the runway had become a living artwork. The museum’s imposing architecture amplified the sense of memory and reverie that ran throughout the collection, making the entire event feel suspended in time.
Accessories, like the Bloom bags - some hand-painted by Donachie herself - were the perfect finishing touch, extending the narrative of the show. This show was a living, breathing conversation between the past and the present, a dialogue of memory, imagination, and emotion. Erdem’s AW25 collection is, at its core, a reimagining of what fashion can be: art that moves, art that breathes.
