A Magazine Curated By...Erdem!
'My preoccupation has always been with all things feminine, all things beautiful', Erdem Moralıoğlu told SHOWstudio in his on-camera In Fashion interview in 2010. Over a decade later, and the same can still be said of the British-Turkish designer's clothes, with menswear also in the mix. Awarded the British Fashion Council’s Womenswear Designer of the Year award in 2014, opening his flagship in Mayfair, London, and collaborating with H&M on a sell-out collection three years later, Moralıoğlu is one of the most successful and important designers based in London.
Inspired by artists and disruptive figures from past and present, Moralıoğlu's collections are famed for their intricate sense of craftsmanship. Now, the designer will explore his rich aesthetic world through A Magazine Curated By, the Paris-based fashion magazine that explores the universe of a chosen fashion designer in each issue.
Following a well-trodden path of guest editors before him, including Alessandro Michele, Grace Wales Bonner, Haider Ackermann, Kim Jones and Maison Margiela, Moralıoğlu's issue of A Magazine Curated By promises to be another one-of-a-kind collectible publication encapsulating the designer's unique point of view. 200 pages include fashion, photography, painting, cinema, music and queer pop culture, with contributions from friends, family and artists spanning from the historical to the contemporary. Interviews with actor Glenn Close and fashion critic Tim Blanks feature, together with two photography series starring his tutor from the Royal College of Art Wendy Dagworthy, muses such as Ruthie Rogers and actors Claire Foy and Ruth Wilson, together with the designer's twin sister Sara Moralıoğlu. Back in 2018, Erdem designed costumes for a ballet at the Royal Opera House, and principal dancers and artists from the institution also feature in the pages of his A Magazine Curated By issue.
Notorious figures who have inspired the designer on the runway also find themselves within the pages of the issue, with odes to the writer Virginia Woolf, artists Cindy Sherman and Derek Jarman and actor Marlene Dietrich, juxtaposed with influential figures working today. For the issue, Moralıoğlu commissioned work from image-maker, writer and stylist pairings. Among them, William Waterworth and Amanda Harlech created an Emily Brontë-inspired archival story, Campbell Addy and Gabriella Karefa-Johnson looked to the Erdem S/S 23 collection, whilst as Ethan James Green and Dara Allen captured the cover story for the issue featuring archive Erdem pieces. In an ode to their late mother, the designer's sister Sara Moralıoğlu is featured in conversation with the acclaimed British painter Kaye Donachie on the topic of abstract figurative painting.
Other subjects tackled in the publication include the designer's own meditation on being a non-identical twin and the fluidity of gender, queer magazines, the National Portrait Gallery's LGBTQAI+ photographic archives and Moralıoğlu's Turkish paternal heritage.
A piece of art in it's own right, the spine of A#24 Curated By Erdem features a green floral jacquard - a favourite fabric of the designer's, with gloss foil accents. Each magazine contains a 130x180mm limited-edition gloss print photograph by Annemarieke van Drimmelen.
First launched in 2002, A Magazine Curated By is one of a small handful of influential print publications remaining today, which demands a physical interaction with the reader. You can explore some of the most iconic past editions in this SHOWstudio project.
A#24 Curated By Erdem is sold online atamagazinecuratedby.com this November.