If you ever wear an Erdem dress anywhere in the world and a man comes up to praise you, know that he may be its creator himself. “I tell them that I love what they are wearing or that they are very pretty. They don't usually know who I am, so they might wonder who that weird guy who compliments them is,” the designer confesses with a laugh. The only strange thing about Erdem Moralıoğlu's way of expressing himself is that the adult he is and the child he once was coexist, constantly peering into the frame of his inseparable horn-rimmed glasses.
To an English mother and a Turkish father, she was born in Montreal in 1977, just a few seconds apart from her twin sister, documentary filmmaker Sara Moralıoğlu. She moved to London in 2000 - shortly after she lost her parents in a car accident - to study at the Royal College of Art motivated by her admiration for David Hockney and Ossie Clark and determination to her for becoming a fashion designer. With the MFA under her belt and a first studio that she literally won in a contest, she created a collection in 2005 that she purchased at Barneys New York.
In those first garments, his inclination towards beauty, his sense of color and the combination of prints in constructions similar to haute couture could already be seen. Erdem was a classic designer at a time when the British creative scene opted for the color black and transgressive, and perhaps that is why it has been one of the most relevant brands in its industry for almost twenty years and one that has been trusted. women as different as Kate Middleton or Madonna, Michelle Obama or Emma Stone.
“I have operated in the same way since I was a student: I have always emphasized narrative and history,” he comments regarding those hallmarks that have accompanied him from the beginning. Moralıoğlu has made his passion for discovering and telling stories his method, and, although he assures that he is not a political designer, in the choice of these stories he expresses his ideas: “As a creative it is impossible not to participate in what is happening today, But I prefer to do it through a more subtle point of view,” he explains.
“I think collections have to be used to tell interesting things that happen or have happened, like the one where I was inspired by Stella and Fanny, who were non-binary people in Victorian times. “They lived around the corner from my house in Bloomsbury.”
This spring, the protagonist of the story is Deborah Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, and in its preparation she had access to the family archives to the point that the Chatsworth House curtains are part of an opera coat made in collaboration with Barbour. “It was very helpful that the dukes were so generous. "She was able to turn the dresses she wore inside out or look at the corsetry inside and discover the jewels, like those little antennas, some earrings from the 1920s, which appear on tiaras in the collection."
The history of Erdem (firm and designer) is written through its desire to remain independent. “It's interesting that when I started I did it independently, and I still am. “I suppose he is intimately tied to who I am in the creative sense and to my singular vision,” he reflects. “I have always been an independent person, but I have never thought of myself in those terms. He's funny. It is also true that all my successes have to do with the extraordinary team that surrounds me.”
In an industry orchestrated by luxury conglomerates and whose music marks a constant game of chairs for creative directors, he has received calls that could have taken him to another house: “Almost all the conversations I have had have come with the nuance that the other Part of me hoped that I would stop focusing on what I do, and I would never sacrifice my signature for someone else's. “I am open to working on another brand, it would be incredible to explore another language, but not at the risk of sacrificing mine.”
The price to pay for independence is even higher since the United Kingdom left the European Union in 2020, complicating import activity (Erdem works with the best European fabric factories) and exports: “It is important to remember that it coincided with the Covid crisis, so we had to deal with so many factors at that time and there are still so many aspects of Brexit that our government didn't even finalize... It was a disaster and it's still something negative, strange and xenophobic. “A horrible idea that was not done thoughtfully.”
Added to the uncertainty about the political situation of the country he arrived to avoid leaving is that of an industry, that of luxury, which sees how the demand for its products languishes in the current macroeconomic context, and which seeks answers in technology, with artificial intelligence in the head.
Are you going to try to go down that path? “You can't fight technology, but Erdem has always had a human touch. How is AI going to affect my world? I'm more analog. I go to the library, I walk, I talk on the phone, I don't have Instagram installed on my phone -he laughs-. "I think I'm not from the future." Perhaps this is his definitive gesture of independence.
