No, you have not made a wrong turn on the internet somewhere and found yourself on the Daily Mail. This is still Dazed Fashion, despite immediate appearances. If you’ve been paying attention for the last few weeks, you’ll know that Lily Allen’s career-shifting fifth album West End Girl charted the dissolution of her marriage to a New York actor, and its no-holds-barred approach meant that everyone from the sidebar of shame to the Dazed office is still talking about it. Now, Lily’s in London, but she’s not on her own – she’s making her catwalk debut at Marco Capaldo’s latest 16Arlington show.
Brought to you on a freezing November evening, off-schedule and far away from London Fashion Week, Capaldo’s latest was a collaboration with Antony Price, the cult octogenarian designer famed for dressing David Bowie, Bryan Ferry and the rest of Roxy Music. A made-to-order, demi-couture offering, the collection was all about a “cross generational, eternal, enduring” concept of glamour. “The archaic interpretation of glamour is a form of magic or enchantment – ‘to cast glamour’ is to bewitch, to bring you under a spell,” read show notes laid out on the seats, which also included hand-drawn sketches of each look by Price. “Glamour is intoxicating and seductive, strangely magnetic. It’s about attraction, about seduction.”
Entering the glare of a single spotlight, models slowly wafted onto the catwalk, in sculpted hourglass jackets and calf leather cocktail dresses. Allen was third to walk out, sauntering onto the runway puffing on a Marlboro Gold, joining the annals of catwalk fag moments à la Kate Moss at Louis Vuitton AW11. The British pop star was wearing a navy velvet gown with a bright green lining, its scalloped neckline referencing a 1981 collection from Price. The name of Allen’s look was ‘Avenge’, and you can probably guess why. (When we asked Capaldo the reason behind the name post-show, he simply grinned from ear to ear without saying a word.)
Elsewhere on the catwalk, the singer was joined by Alva Claire, Jean Campbell, Adwoa Aboah, Lila Moss, Paloma Elsesser, Lara Stone, Kai-Isaiah Jamal, Edie Campbell and Phoebe Philo’s daughter Maya Wigram for a gathering of the industry’s most in-demand models. While chatting to Capaldo backstage he revealed the concept behind the It-girl convention. For the designer, it was just about “bringing my friends together” for this special collaboration with Price. “So much of Antony’s work was about the people he worked with, and we found this really beautiful parallel between the people that surrounded him and the people that surround me.”
Scroll through the gallery at the top of the page for the full collection