He is probably the most successful Canadian designer on the international stage.
British Vogue has just published his first cover, the June edition featuring Alexa Chung.
His signature print dresses are worn by Anna Wintour, Sarah Jessica Parker, Carey Mulligan, Kate Bosworth, Julianne Moore, Keira Knightley, Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway, among others.
He is sold in more than 30 countries, in 100 of the best stores in the world: Barneys, Saks, Colette, Harvey Nichols, Net-Ã -porter and, in Canada, Holt Renfrew.
Erdem Moralioglu, 33, born and raised in Montreal, has achieved all of this in five short years.
And Erdem, as he is known, cut a fine figure on the dance floor, kicking up his heels in his Norton & Sons, Savile Row skinny suit, red socks flashing, at a friend’s wedding in Montreal recently.
In town last month for the wedding, Erdem was called into Holt Renfrew for a series of meetings and photos with the media.
A dress is meant to make the most beautiful version of the woman, he said in the department store’s dress salon.
“Our woman isn’t obsessed with trend. She marches to her own drummer. She has an emotional relationship to her clothes. She values them and she relies on them,’’ he said.
And he likes a dress to have a long shelf life: five to 25 years.
Erdem grew up in Pointe Claire, went to Marianopolis College, then did his B.A. at Ryerson in Toronto, followed by two years at the Royal College of Art in London.
Afterward, he worked at Diane von Furstenberg in New York for less than a year. “I realized then that I wanted to do this alone.’’
Erdem chose London not only because he studied and has family there.
“London is a fairly open scene to new designers. It’s easier to start there,’’ he said, noting he started the same year as a generation of emerging talents, including Marios Schwab, Christopher Kane and fellow Canadian Todd Lynn.
“It’s a place where a lot of things begin.’’
What began for him, and very quickly, was recognition and awards, including the inaugural British Fashion Council/Vogue Fashion Fund prize last year, worth £200,000 ($320,600) – a sum that allowed him to expand his company to 15 employees and produce four collections a year.
Known for his botanical prints, Erdem said he learned how to create them on his own – out of necessity, as he didn’t find what he wanted in the market. It’s an organic process of repeatedly painting and drawing, scanning and building each print to its final form. The botanicals are often mixed with lace, wildly colourful at times, and can recall everything from Liberty to art nouveau to Impressionist.
He starts each collection with a sketch and a silhouette. “Each collection is very much a chapter in a book,” Erdem said.
This spring features delicate florals, inspired by Ballets Russes. The feeling is nymph-like, he said. “It was so floral, optimistic and very much about a girl.”
Next fall is a reaction against that: abstract, inspired by the movie Pollock, with embroidery in ripped chiffon, he said. “She’d come undone a little bit. It’s much more about sex.”
He thought about a woman ripping up her husband’s canvases. “It was a woman. It was a nipped-in silhouette. It was a slit.”
There’s a lot of skin, too, with bare backs or bra straps on view. The fabrics are sturdy outside and in. One dress is made of girdle fabric. “I love underpinnings,’’ Erdem said.
The clothes are costly: about $1,000 to $6,000 or $7,000. But the most expensive garments sell out first, he said.
“Wearing Erdem is wearing a piece of art,’’ said Barbara Atkin, adding she is proud he is from Montreal and impressed that he keeps his Canadian identity. “In a sad way, he left Canada to make it big.”
A strong signature is what puts designers up front, she said. “He actually has a bold statement to make. It all started with his prints,” she added, praising his painterly strokes, florals, use of colour, interpretation of lace and his “fit-and-flare” silhouettes. Atkin could not name another young designer with such wide, cross-generational appeal and success.
His pieces are timeless, she added.
Erdem always knew he wanted to be a fashion designer. He grew up watching the MusiquePlus show Perfecto, Tim Blanks on Fashion File, Jeanne Beker and Canal 5’s coverage of ready to wear and couture.
“Growing up in Canada, I actually had a lot more access to fashion (than in London). There was a regular flow of fashion. I could eat it,’’ he said.
“I was watching it in the basement of my house in Pointe Claire.”
Having just arrived from Singapore and Hong Kong, Erdem said he was surprised and a little puzzled by the breadth of his appeal, wondering what the women at Colette in Paris, Holt Renfrew in Montreal and Harvey Nichols in London have in common.
As for his friend’s wedding, he created the gown, a custom-
designed white-on-white floral print with hand-embroidered appliqué. Draped on the bias, it sported a three-metre train.
“It made me feel really glamorous, sophisticated, beautiful. It was like poetry,’’ said the bride, Suzanne Wexler, who often writes for The Montreal Gazette.
“I love that people said it was so me and so him.”
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