Erdem Spring 2026: Into the Ether

There was a prim restraint, and a sense of abandon, to this collection, which was a mash-up of vastly different eras, geographies and personalities. The maelstrom of color, texture and shape came down to one woman, Hélène Smith, a late 19th-century Swiss medium who time traveled during her trances, and drew the scenes she witnessed.

When it comes to muses, Erdem Moralioglu certainly can pick ‘em. Each season he hunts for interesting, creative women, many of whom turn out to be high-achieving outsiders. But he really outdid himself with Smith, a now-obscure figure who in her heyday was admired by surrealist artists for her ability to inhabit dreamscapes and return to tell — and illustrate — the tale.

At one point she even returned from a trance with a full Martian alphabet, and the corresponding letters in French.

This all provided lavish pickings for Moralioglu, who recreated Smith’s various past lives — at the 18th-century court of Versailles in the days of Marie Antoinette, the subject of a major show at the V&A; as an Indian princess, and as a tourist on Mars.

In other hands this collection might have turned chaotic, but not for Moralioglu, who was able to stitch together time and space and come up with an utterly modern collection. He sent more than 40 looks down the runway, including curvy, corset-inspired minidresses made from antique lace remnants or hessian, all adorned with crystal and floral embroidery.

Other coats and dresses came with high, lacy collars, corset details and panniers — an emerging trend here in London, in tandem with the arrival of Marie Antoinette at the South Kensington museum.

Interspersed with all of those formal, sculptural styles were more languid shapes, dresses and coats bursting with those intense colors of India, including searing pink and neon green.

Moralioglu sent out satin trenches — as drapey as dressing gowns and glittering with diamanté and flower embellishments — and sensual dresses made from sari-like wrapping and draping. Flat shoes with floppy fabric bows in punchy pink or red finished off these lovingly made designs.

There may be a crisis in luxury right now, with customers — even the high-net worth ones — putting the stops on shopping, but Moralioglu has given them at least 40 reasons to return to the shop floor and start tapping into the wild worlds of Madame Smith.