Stevie Knicks’s “Edge of Seventeen” pumped through the sun-bathed atrium of London’s Royal Opera House, causing the tall, lilac ruffled curtains to quiver. Mithridate, now in its second season under designer Daniel Fletcher, launched from its own precipice to chase the glow of a good, raucous night—and the next morning—with a cast of frazzled, fabulous (and maybe a little hungover) British Sloane Rangers.
Fletcher was named creative director of the Guangzhou-headquartered label last January. Known for his eponymous brand and its charming take on menswear, and formerly in the artistic director role at Fiorucci, Fletcher has also held design roles at JW Anderson and Louis Vuitton. Mithridate, pre-Fletcher, was defined by embellished evening wear and glitzy dresses, but the Chester-born designer quickly got to work revamping its logo and branding, and expanding its categories.
While the first show (produced in under three months) was about establishing Fletcher’s new DNA—introducing British staples like an Oxford shirt, collegiate knits, and double-breasted suits—this season brought out the brand’s “more joyous side,” as he described it in a preview at his equally bright London Bridge studio. Comprising 40 looks, Fletcher wove together Britain’s heritage sensibilities with Chinese craft and textiles. The style codes of the regatta-enjoying crowds and the King’s Road clubbers of the 1980s combined: classic peacoats were whittled into feminine, sculptural silhouettes, and silk tassel scarves ensconced the necks of formal, polka-dot evening dresses and loose pastel sweaters. A bulbous, dotted puffball skirt met a sturdy workwear jacket, and striped rugby shirts were thrown over sequin slips and knit hot pants with riding boots.
Fletcher has focused on developing fabrication with his Guangzhou atelier, and Mithridate’s evening wear has been reimagined. There was a hand pleated dinner shirt; a silk nylon, forest green Harrington jacket; and a delightfully jaunty trapeze dress in a retro carpet fabric. Prints were inspired by Chinese ceramics, and featured the sculpted head of the ancient Greek emperor and brand namesake Mithridate, and a British whippet. Numbers were a continued motif that brought together British sports style and the Chinese practice of Feng Shui: “The numbers I chose to use reflect regeneration and growth,” said Fletcher.
Accessories were bold and cheeky: ‘M’ branded belts sat low on the hips, a long sleeve in icy blue and pink was tied languidly like a pashmina over a socialite’s shoulders. Footwear expanded with tasseled leather slippers, soft sneakerinas, and piped leather brogues. Large, sumptuous luggage bags had been road tested by Fletcher on his trips to China. “There is a strong focus on quality in our story,” he said, keen to divest the ‘Made in China’ stigma. “I want to see Mithridate taken seriously as an international luxury brand,” said Fletcher. “I want to see it all over the world.” Madonna’s vast and cosmic “Ray of Light” was a fitting finale song.
