The Irish designer took a regal, romantic trip this season.
The bare white walls of the Hauser & Wirth Gallery in Mayfair couldn’t be further from the ornate locations thathas previously staged her pulse-racing shows — the gilded opulence of Lancaster House, or the faded grandeur of Alexandra Palace, for instance. This is a designer who knows how to bring a catwalk to life, whether it’s unexpected casting, a powerful soundtrack, or simply a visual parade of splendour and beauty.
Gold brocade, tulle embroidered castles, giant pearls, lattices of crystals, balloons of taffeta… Where other designers have pulled back the reins for these ostensibly austere times, Simone dialled up every detail of handwork, silhouette and textile. “People want to dress in a way that feels familiar and practical, which I completely understand, but I still feel there is a craving for escapism and freedom and romanticism,” she points out.
The Irish designer was also thinking about bodies over lockdown, pondering the intimacy of the female form. She was quickly drawn to two key references with unlikely parallels: Richard Prince’s eroticworks, all retro-fetish pin-ups; and 17th and 18th-century portraiture, equally corseted and constrained, and surprisingly erotic. Simone mentioned the Simon Verelst portrait of Nell Gwynn, the actress-turned-mistress to Charles II, who posed with nothing but very undone cotton chemise .
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