September 19, 2022 |
Opening with black-clad funeral procession set to a tolling bell, LVMH Prize winner S.S.Daley’s third London Fashion Week show unfolded within a grand solarium ballroom at the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel. The inspiringly diverse cast of models promenaded around a botanical tableau riddled with English countryside charm donning black and white mourning vestments that served as both an introduction to, and a reiteration of the quintessential 1920s and ‘30s silhouettes Daley is known for. It felt solemn, of course having something to do with her late Majesty’s passing, but also evoking the love and longing of a forbidden romance.
Once again employing actors from the National Youth Theatre, the love story is told through a dramatised reading of the historic letters exchanged between Vita Sackville-West and Violet Trefusis (whose Sissinghurst garden informed the set), two aristocratic, queer women who were forced to face the wrath of the patriarchal confines of early 20th century British high-society. Daley anthropomorphised their tale with an array of cotton twill utility sets, wide-cut Irish linen summer shirts, patchwork shirts and debut bags collaged from commemorative tea-towels, and androgynous balloon sleeve voile floor-length shirts. Prints appeared as 1920s seed packet illustrations and real roses duct-taped under the words “Les Fleurs”.
It was somewhat like a Beatrix Potter fable, with 1700s etchings of a hare printed on a camel trench coat, polos and cardigans with twin rabbits dancing across the front and a jersey long-sleeve muscle top embroidered with the phrase “Bunny Boy”; this reference came from a codeword the women were found to use when writing about their love –“rabbit”. However, as sprightly as the motif may have felt, the clothes became increasingly sombre as the tale transpired and their clandestine love drove them further apart, leaving us with the melancholy aftertaste of a once love lost.
Photography by Maja Smiejkowska.
