Erdem Takes Us Back Over 100 Years With a Collection That Still Feels Up to Date

Given that the setting for the show was London's National Portrait Gallery, it should come as no surprise that the Erdem Spring 2019 show was as rich, luscious, and visually stunning as ever. Designer Erdem Moralioglu is a master with luxury fabrics, be they rich brocades or delicate ruffled tulle, and this collection had plenty of tactile-looking pieces. Paying homage to modest turn-of-the-century silhouettes (and we mean the 20th century, not the 21st), models walked the runway in elegant dresses with exaggerated puff sleeves, high necklines, giant bows, and floor-sweeping hemlines. One black and white dress topped with a dramatic veiled hat brought to mind the monochrome-clad attendees of Ascot in My Fair Lady, though Erdem's inspiration was far from the Audrey Hepburn musical . . . he was instead inspired by Fanny and Stella, two Victorian cross-dressers who were put to trial in 1871, charged with "conspiring and inciting persons to commit an unnatural offense." Aside from the dresses, there was also tailoring, and it seems like Erdem is joining Victoria Beckham in bringing back extralong skinny pants, with his designs stretching right over the model's shoes and to the floor, in herringbone or classic black. There was plenty here to please the designer's core fanbase, with all the usual feminine details and old-fashioned charm. The one thing missing? Any hint as to whether this LFW designer will turn royal wedding couturier in a month's time?