The Iordanes Spyridon Gogos show kicked off with a movie. On the soundtrack, the designer could be heard saying “five years of emerging collections—this is my most emerging collection yet!” It’s a sentiment familiar to so many designers who are eternally up-and-coming in the eyes of the industry regardless of how long they’ve been at it. But all jokes have a bit of truth to them, and it’s true that this was one of Jordan Gogos’s best and most well-rounded lineups. Through a thundering electronic music soundtrack that included club favorites past and present, the film depicted Gogos in full-on rave mode in the background as the show got underway.
Shortly after his runway last season, Gogos embarked on a trip to Greece. He returned more inspired than ever by his ancestral homeland, and with a large supply of vintage Greek textiles which he used in his collection. A group of seven superb two-tone coats were made from Greek blankets “sourced from Greek households in Australia”; they were perfectly constructed half-and-half so that at the end when all seven models walked together hand in hand, their coats interconnected.
“I grew up inside these blankets, I got hay fever from them, they remind me of sneezing,” he said at a studio preview a few days before his show. Other jackets, which he deemed “six-pack” blazers because their construction is reminiscent of a six-pack costume, were made from fabric he sourced in Santorini, combined with tourist bags, traditional table runners, and Greek tablecloths in the lining. The remnants from building those jackets were then stitched together and turned into other jackets—nothing goes to waste in the Gogos studio. Aprons, napkins, and other domestic textiles were also used as raw materials for cropped tops, suits, skirts, and even a bride-worthy embroidered gown with fringe.
The designer is fond of using a chain topstitch and this season it yielded incredible results, including on a preppy seersucker-looking blazer, where the chain stitch had been “run over the fabric three times” in order to achieve the textural effect. On a skirt suit made from the shapes of curved rulers and other tools of the trade, all collaged together and chain-stitched in black thread, the effect was more akin to television static. And on a fantastic ’80s short sleeve striped day dress, the “stripes” were groups of swirly yarns tacked into place with groups of yarns of different thicknesses like a topographic map. Also map-like were the multi-colored velcro panels that the designer reassembled again and again throughout the show, turning them into skirts, tops, capes.
Personal touches were everywhere in the collection: a metallic liquid gold coat printed with old photos of the designer, his family, his old student work; a sleeveless coat with an oversized petal neckline hand-painted by his mom with images of horses, fruits, and Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra. One dress was made of hundreds of credit card-sized Instax photos—a sponsor of the show. “It’s kind of funny with self-portraits, you take one and it’s a vibe or you look hot, but once you take 400 photos it’s almost like you get lost.” Except with this collection Gogos proves to be more self-assured than ever.
