February 6, 2018 |
“I have always been obsessed by that pristine woman” says Christopher Kane of his new Summer campaign. “So clean, so proper, yet having an emotional breakdown”. We’d be lying if we said the subject didn’t interest us either Christopher, ever since we saw January Jones shoot those pigeons as Don Draper’s archetype 1950’s trophy-wife, we’ve learnt not to trust the seemingly perfect suburban woman. Because beneath the immaculately manicured lawns, gleaming fondue sets and perfect perms, lies disorder and filth. It’s the same paradox Mr. Kane sent down the runway for his SS18 Domestic Services collection, where girls in flimsy lace and black patent gloves hinted at “the kind of woman who invites the milkman in and charges for the privilege” as one Richard Gray put it at the time.
That woman is here Kiki Willems. Shot by Alasdair McLellan in suburban Streatham, the one time London home to the collections muse Madam Cynthia Payne, famed in the 1970s for hosting MPs, solicitors, vicars and other such respectable folk, who would pay in lunch vouchers to dress up in lingerie and be spanked by young women. How wonderfully British. Ms Payne personifies this season’s Christopher Kane girl; where the prim and proper become smokescreens for something darker, more frivolous and altogether more exciting.
