Fitting that Per Götesson should cite “ships in a bottle” as inspiration for this, his autumn/winter 19 show, which took place at the British Fashion Council’s official show space on Sunday afternoon.
The Swedish-born designer has previous form with bottles: an early project, Poetical Functions, featured garments made with pockets designed to hide wine on the bus.
There’s even something vessel-like in the way he made his way here, across the water, from a little town in southern Sweden; “[coming] from a simple place to a big complex city, like London” as he put it in yesterday’s show notes.
Mostly though, you can see that “ship in a bottle” idea in the kind of half-very traditional, half-incredibly technical form that his autumn/winter 19 show took: one that evoked the same kind of how-did-he-do-that curiosity as that most famous of nautical puzzles.
While this collection was marked by the signature experimentation we’ve come to expect from the brand — notably the digitally rendered jackets, constructed in collaboration with Kathy McGee of Digitoile and created by scanning the entire body — there was also a clear expansion into tailoring that felt inspired by tradition: the double-breasted Prince of Wales check blazer; the clever draping of snake-hipped trousers. Here was a designer experimenting less with new forms, and more with old — to no less effect.
“The collection celebrates artisanal making making,” Per said in the accompanying show notes. “There is empowerment in craftsmanship, and the care that is taken over something very fragile.”
