ERDEM OFFERS A HAIRY SURPRISE

Erdem transformed an almost perfunctory catwalk exercise in cross-dressing into a romantic elegy for Fanny and Stella, two Victorian sisters who were actually male lovers (Frederick Park and Ernest Boulton) living in Bloomsbury who were hauled before magistrates in 1870. Victorian touches abounded in this collection, from the large masculinefeminine-masculine ruffled shoulders, with sleeves set halfway along the shoulder line, to the tiny corseted waists and enormous veiled picture hats. Here was a delicious game of concealment and revelation, of propriety and mischief (see the hirsute, decidedly masculine legs peeking beneath the beribboned feminine puff, right), of 1870s dressmaking techniques and 2018 scuba-esque fabrics.