Bora Aksu was in a reflective mood before his show this morning. Understandably so. As with so many designers of Turkish heritage based in London, the earthquake in Turkey and Syria continuing to unfold in the background has taken precedence over his collection during the past 10 days. “Thankfully all my family and friends live in the west of Turkey, near Istanbul, but I know a lot of people who are still looking for their friends and loved ones,” he said. “It doesn’t always feel like fashion makes sense when there’s a situation going on like that, and I think that darker mood definitely made its way into the clothes.” (As a mark of respect to his home country, Aksu dedicated a minute’s silence to the lives lost in the tragedy and opted for the modest soundtrack of a cellist playing Beethoven.)
Presenting the collection within the wood-paneled refectory of Goodenough College, an educational charity housed in a stately 1930s building in the heart of Bloomsbury, Aksu leaned on his creative impulses as a form of release. A recent trip to the Musée d’Orsay introduced him to some of Edvard Munch’s lesser-known, early works; more specifically, a handful of the Norwegian artist’s sketchily rendered portraits of his similarly free-thinking sisters. “It looked unfinished and raw, but he wasn’t interested in making a polished, finished product,” said Aksu, in what could also serve as a statement about his own design philosophy this season, which featured his signature laces and crochets in a state of artful dishevelment. “Munch wanted to create emotion.” Wednesday Addams was also on Aksu’s moodboard: happily-timed, given the smash hit Netflix series. “It all felt like a lovely, strange marriage,” said Aksu.
Returning to Aksu’s deliberately roughly-hewn details: While the designer has used off-cuts and scraps from his factories for a few seasons now, this season he dug deeper, going back through his own archives—as far back as his graduate collection, in fact—and even into his mother’s home. “I was going through her yarn cabinets,” Aksu said, with a chuckle. “I picked out some yarns, and I just started creating.” Aksu’s more frou-frou instincts always need a little edge to offset them and make them work, and a light sprinkling of Goth-inflected touches did exactly that. In combination with the scholastic atmosphere of the show’s setting, Wednesday Addams would certainly approve.
