In a similar vein to their pre-fall collection, Matthew Harding and Levi Palmer are contemplating a feeling that will be relatable to anyone who’s sought solace from the bracing winter we’re now at the tail end of—or, actually, anyone who’s read the news lately: shutting it all out, and spending the season wrapped up in bed. Rather than a My Year Of Rest And Relaxation-style season of bedrot, though, they had something a bit less solitary in mind. “We were really exploring a sense of intimacy—that feeling that comes of being intertwined in bed with your partner, and the protection that comes of embrace,” explained Harding, his words made more timely by the fact they were spoken just after Valentine’s weekend.
“A lot of the detailing is really about the idea of being entangled with each other,” Palmer echoed, illustrating how the ephemeral inspiration of stolen moments with a special other translated to crisp white poplin shirts with swathes of fabric insouciantly slung about the collar, crepe column dresses with billowing sleeves featuring cut-outs that cling to bare shoulders, and a tobacco leatherette bomber with a swooping drape on the reverse.
A similarly romantic air colors the collection’s palette, a visual exploration of the liminal space between dusk and dawn, moving between rich “sunset hues to deep midnight blue, and then touching on that freshness of morning.” That sentiment was best captured in a chicly executed dress in a peach taffeta, featuring a fanning hemline and twisted drape that curled down over the collarbone and shoulder. That these are elegant clothes that also offer their wearer a sense of elevated coziness is a fact self-evident at a glance; it would be interesting, however, to see work where the link between source material and finished product feels a little less literal going ahead.
