Over the past few years, 16Arlington has steadily risen to become a reliable highlight of London Fashion Week’s slimmed-down, post-pandemic schedule, bringing a level of va-va-voom and refinement that is rare among emerging brands in this most DIY of cities. But this season, Marco Capaldo decided to take a step back from the runway, instead presenting his fall collection in the form of a look book shot in New York by Ethan James Green and styled by Dara Allen—then celebrated in London with a one-night-only exhibition and dinner during Fashion Week, where the pieces were set to be worn by a flock of Capaldo’s friends and collaborators.
“It does feel a bit unnatural to be this calm at this point in the calendar, but it’s also refreshing,” said Capaldo at his ever-expanding studio in Shoreditch. “We’re all completely flooded with content during fashion month, so I thought it would be nice to do a dinner where you can foster those real connections and also give everyone a bit more time to experience the collection properly. I quite liked the idea of having people wear the pieces to a dinner party, and presenting the work in the environment where it will ultimately live.”
Capaldo’s mode of presentation may have been a touch more low-key, but his vision this season was anything but. The designer took his cues from full-throttle 1980s power dressing, then warped those codes—Lurex, sequins, clashing colors, glossy leathers—just enough to lend it a wonkier, left-of-center glamour. Modeled by Caroline Trentini and Yasmin Wijnaldum in a series of fierce, acrobatic poses worthy of a Claude Montana runway, the outfits were the most voluminous that Capaldo—who is arguably best known for his slinkier numbers—has ever shown, from bulbous belted wrap coats to swishy ovoid-shaped pants to a series of wild layered gowns with puffball skirts atop layered strings of sequins that rustled and floated like loose streamers of VHS tape. “I was very excited to turn up the volume and create something really bold and fun that played a bit with these notions of good and bad taste,” said Capaldo. To wit, the collection also marked his first venture into flashier branding—he was looking to the ’80s, after all—courtesy of belts with 16A logo hardware worn with leather miniskirts, death-defying pumps, a kohl-rimmed eye, and a lick of hot red lipstick. (Unsurprisingly, on Capaldo’s mood board—and playing in the studio during the shoot—was Robert Palmer’s iconic “Addicted to Love” video.)
Now that Capaldo has had time to firmly establish the brand’s codes, he’s also looking to fully articulate the creative world that orbits it—and it’s a world that’s drifted increasingly adjacent to London’s contemporary art scene. Hence the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it exhibition of Green’s images taking place in Mayfair’s Almine Rech Gallery, with which Capaldo curated an exhibition for Rech at Frieze No.9 Cork Street earlier this year. He also collaborated with the buzzy artist George Rouy and celebrated choreographer Sharon Eyal on costumes for a work that is currently showing at Frieze Los Angeles. “Curating the exhibition and doing all of the studio visits, meeting all of these artists, and being given the opportunity to see the world through their eyes—I found it incredibly inspiring,” he said. “Being exposed to that really influenced my way of working.”
That’s not to say these diversions into art have distracted him from his most important task, which for Capaldo remains relatively straightforward: simply making his wearer feel good. Even if this collection felt like a more grown-up pivot from last season’s spirit of youthful Balearic hedonism, Capaldo explained he made a conscious effort to ensure the pieces are still versatile. “I think there’s something about the ’80s where all those notions of age and what’s appropriate are completely wiped away, and there are no rules—and I tried to channel that feeling when building this collection,” he said. “I suppose it took me back to the early days of 16Arlington, when it was really just about designing clothes that make someone feel great; where it’s like there is no right, there is no wrong.” Indeed, between us speaking on Wednesday and the launch on Saturday, one of the collection’s most OTT gowns had already shown up on Cynthia Erivo when she attended the premiere of Wicked in Tokyo. Even when Capaldo heads in a new direction, his army of glamorous women are always walking in step.
