Erdem Pre-Fall 2024 at London Fashion

Erdem Pre-Fall 2024 at London Fashion, Erdem is backstage with the opera singer Maria Callas. The legend of Callas’s stage performances belied a personal life of insecurity and tragedy. In character she had an electric capacity to project complex emotional states with her voice. Off stage she wore her vulnerability in public. When the lights go down what lies beneath this voice with its primal power?

This is a study in the tension of balancing control and passion, restraint and ferocity, image and expression. The Erdem Pre-Fall 2024 / PF24 collection examines how Callas dressed and carried herself, at times deriving pieces from garments worn by the singer and at others taking volumes, details and motifs Erdem of the era as starting points. Structure and drapery, tailoring and organic shapes are combined and contrasted to intriguing effect. There are late-50s and 60s silhouettes: cocoon shapes; boat-neck dresses and felted pea coats with voluminous backs. The feeling is decadent with a sharp edge, not unlike how some critics described why the voice of Callas was so memorable.

In several looks there is a tussle between austerity and playfulness, that could almost be riotous or wild. A black dress is swathed with an over-sized fuchsia bow. Monastic dresses have built-in bows and capes with jewel encrusted shoulders. A cloqué gown with exaggerated bows on the shoulders feels elegant and exuberant. A black duchesse dress with a structured bustier and waist has a sculptural quality. Knits with mint green draped skirts are casual and formal simultaneously.

Details of Erdem Pre-Fall 2024 / PR24, flower motifs, particularly roses, feature throughout the collection as symbols of adoration. On silk dresses they appear blurred, as if caught in motion mid-flight, thrown from audience to the star with rapturous applause. A long gown is entirely covered with hand-dyed applique roses in varying shades from red to pink.

Elsewhere more subtle hints and echoes of adulation appear, with silk printed roses beneath black tulle skirts, and a black peplum suit jacket with hundreds of black crushed flowers that are almost camouflaged.

There is rich glamour to the Erdem Pre-Fall 2024 collection; this is the wardrobe of a character who lived their life on stage and in the society limelight, dressed by the now forgotten couturier Madame Biki, who happened to be Puccini’s granddaughter. The threshold between on and off stage is thin and porous. Garments for performance can become garments for protection under the fierce gaze of the public eye.