On Friday evening, while stormy weather raged outside, St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral housed a hum of excitement (and a well-dressed crowd) inside its ornate walls. The turnout wasn’t what it should have been, but still a whispered anticipation ran through those who braved the weather. This is the very first Scotland Fashion Week Headliner Show.
The debut was a fresh, promising display of young designers’ works, some showcasing a collection, others just one look. The show kept an interesting balance between celebration of historical reference and traditional Scottish fabrics, played against more modern ideas and techniques. To me, the show symbolised a hopeful future of fashion in Scotland, while still honouring history, and it gave an important platform to the young creatives who may be shaping the coming trends and movements. While much less established than, say, London Fashion Week, I believe with the right support and recognition, Scotland’s fashion scene will only get bigger from here.
The key themes that I noted throughout the show included baggy, wide-leg trousers; utility vests and other workwear inspired garments; a lot of corsets and cinched waists, with more volume in other areas like the shoulder and sleeve; and of course, traditional Scottish fabrics like tartan and plaid, but often in subversive silhouettes.
My personal standouts were designers Kiera Gordon and Adam Wilson, feeling originality and potential from their demi-couture collections. Kiera Gordon showed a Tudor period inspired silhouette in her first look, with a full skirt, the pale blue fabric interspersed with a chainmail-esc mesh of metal discs that jingled through the church. At the back, the unlined discs revealed slivers of skin, and the tailbone area remained bare, playing with modest vs immodest, historic vs modern. The second look featured a circle composition at the skirt, the design evoking Hussein Chalayan’s wooden ‘Coffee Table Skirt’ with its cyclical structure and bold impracticability. A more Victorian shape was present in the third look with a rounded bustle overskirt. Described by the designer as “inspired by antiques, watchmaking, and heritage”, the collection showed inspired originality paired with pertinent historical reference.
Adam Wilson showed two looks complete with tartan, corseted waists, and fantastical, plush body modifications like a faux hump under a cap sleeve shrug or a looped tartan extension protruding from the chest of a corset. The models’ spiky hair, long feathers emerging from the head, and the bright colours reinforced the alien, futuristic nature of Wilson’s looks. On the other hand, corsets, tartan, and a large argyle pattern seemed to refer to a more historic period. This balance between the two is what made the Scotland Fashion Week Headliner Show such a creative and exciting event.
I look forward to seeing the coming seasons of fashion in Scotland and any projects from Scotland’s young designers.
Find out more at @scotlandfw.
Cover illustration by Ilaria Hutu for The Student.