UN. Deux. Trois. Quatre. Cinq. Six. Sept. Huit.
Again. And again. And again…
For Spring/ Summer 2027, Edeline Lee looks to the ballet studio – and to Sisyphus, condemned to push the same stone uphill for eternity – to consider repetition not as punishment, but as practice. Years of training, aching muscles and endless corrections distilled into one ecstatic moment on stage. Then: back to the studio.
It is a fitting metaphor for fashion, too. Behind every apparently effortless garment is a small army of makers, cutters, fitters and designers repeating, refining and beginning again. Presented inside a London school gym, Lee’s collection makes this Sisyphean labour visible. Seamstresses work alongside clothes rails and dancers; backstage is no longer hidden behind the curtain but folded into the performance itself.
The accompanying film, directed by Jake Knight and Ryoko Tanaka, with an original score by Tom Burke, places dancers from Britain’s leading ballet companies inside the school’s lecture theatres and sports halls. Choreographed by Xolisweh Ana Richards, their bodies become another kind of moving architecture.
That athleticism feeds directly into the clothes. Ballet’s lateral tutu, dropped hip and precise bodysuit become propositions for Lee’s ongoing experiments with proportion and structure. A slouchy practice sweater is recast in the house’s Flou Bubble Jacquard, stiffened into a black tutu and knotted into an elegant macramé oval. A rich purple schoolgirl blazer is hand-trimmed with black cotton ribbon. On a flowing green-and-ivory Crinkle Georgette dress, individually engineered stripes carve a sinuous line around the body.
The collection moves between restraint and release. Black and ivory anchor the palette, joined by camel and red in Georgette Champions and Cotton Poplins. Charmeuse Crinkles flash in lucid turquoise and lilac. Silhouettes hold the body close before giving way to movement: pleats, chiffon, sculptural skirts and abbreviated tutus hovering between costume and clothes.
Lee is not dressing ballerinas; she is translating ballet’s discipline into the wardrobe of women moving through their own demanding choreography.
by Andy Mack
Runway images by Alla Bogdanovic