That Erdem Moralıoğlu is passionate about art is not news. The history buff relocated from Canada to study at London’s prestigious Royal College of Art; his print-centric work has referenced Tina Modotti and the portraits of Cecil Beaton; and he dedicated an entire collection to the efforts of conservators who preserve and restore centuries-old treasures in the city’s museums and galleries. But autumn/winter 2024 is perhaps the first time the designer has picked up a brush and daubed red paint directly onto what might otherwise have been a finished look: a 1950s-esque bralette and matching full skirt in floral printed chine taffeta.
Why? Erdem was inspired by an “extraordinary” 1953 production of Medea at La Scala in Milan: legendary soprano Maria Callas’s debut as the vengeful sorceress of Greek mythology. It was staged in collaboration with the Sicilian artist, sculptor and stage designer Salvatore Fiume, the designer explains in the days before his autumn/winter 2024 show at London Fashion Week. Fiume “created these very big, gestural painted sets and costumes. There was something very pagan about it.”
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To play the ultimate woman scorned, the Greek-American soprano – who in the years after this career-defining performance would be betrayed by the love of her own life, Aristotle Onassis – wore a white dress painted with swooping curves of red and black, a bold and distinctive pattern that is instantly discernible today over the top of Erdem’s delicate floral print. “I found it so interesting, this contrast between the perfect ’50s cookie-cutter silhouette, and then really roughly painting the lines of the body,” the designer says of his autumn/winter 2024 design. “I’ve definitely played with screen printing, but maybe this is a first, [in the sense of] taking something that’s finished and perfect and just diving in… almost desecrating something. I don’t want to use the word crude… but there’s something kind of bold and naive to it.”
Erdem, who worked closely with the Royal Opera House and the Benaki Museum in Athens while creating the collection, also immersed himself in the work of Christian Bérard, a fashion illustrator, Vogue contributor and friend of Christian Dior who designed sets for the Comédie-Française and the Ballets Russes. “I was looking at different artists who worked in that world of creating theatre backdrops, and how it looks much more refined from a distance, and then up close it’s much more naive and graphic.”
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These sorts of contrasts form an overarching theme of the collection, which saw Erdem grow increasingly fascinated by the tension between the two sides to Maria Callas – the “Greatest Diva” and her private, somewhat tragic self. “The more I looked at her, the more I found it interesting to strip away things. [To capture] that moment of stepping off stage, in between dressed and undressed, in character and not in character,” explains the designer, who imagined Callas alone in her dressing room at La Scala, or throwing a coat over her costume after finishing a performance.
In addition to that ruby-red painted look (“she’s one of a trio that form an ode to that specific performance of Medea,” says Erdem), this “push-pull” that so captivated the designer manifests in a collection that marries Grecian draping with unexpected textures, such as a 1950s herringbone coat fabric. Naturally, the soundtrack for the show was also an homage to the icon of 20th-century opera. “We found the only interview that exists of Maria Callas speaking Greek,” says Erdem, who worked with the musician James Righton (husband of his friend and fan Keira Knightley) on the soundscape. “I was really interested in kind of bringing that to life, and then of course there’s elements of music. It almost became a collage.”
Erdem describes a sense of “undone-ness” to the collection that directly references his seasonal muse, who will shortly be played by Angelina Jolie in a Pablo Larraín biopic. “I was very interested in hearing her voice. She describes very clearly that there is two sides to her… [Exploring] the mythology of this person, I found something really beautiful and complicated in that.”
