Are you ready for a $300 ballgown? The latest designer collaboration from H&M is with Erdem, the Canadian Turkish designer known for his work with textiles, prints and ultra-feminine gowns. Forget minimalism, it’s all about making a powerful first impression when you walk into the room.
From Victorian collar blouses and lush floral jacquards to floral print ball gowns with the designer’s signature ribbon-trimmed cut outs, you can finally get your hands on a piece of Erdem for a reasonable price. Think Claire Foy and The Crown. Or Duchess of Cambridge.
Shot by renowned Slovak photographer Michal Pudelka, the images are striking, with models posing in what looks like family portraits in a studio and across flower fields and grass on a country estate. “We thought it would be great to do a modern take on classical family portraits, creating characters in Erdem’s world,” Pudelka said in a press release. “The Erdem x H&M collection really spoke to me, and the working process felt authentic and creatively charged.”
The models H&M chose for the campaign are a diverse group in race and age, with models like Saskia de Brauw, Imaan Hammam, Grace Hertzel, Fernando Cabral, Neels Visser a Tony Ward, posing alongside actors Ruby Dagnall, Tom Rhys Harries, Hero Fiennes-Tiffin and Harriet Walter, who’s 67.
Erdem Moralioglu was born in Canada to a Turkish father and British mother, moved from Montreal to Birmingham as a child and founded the Erdem label in 2005. Well known for his experimental textiles and intricate craftsmanship, Erdem has a coterie of high profile clients, such as Kate Middleton, Alexa Chung, Michelle Obama, Keira Knightley and Nicole Kidman. With this project, Erdem brings into focus the new generation’s appetite for formal partywear and joins the ranks of past collaborators Roberto Cavalli, Karl Lagerfeld, Olivier Rousteing and Donatella Versace.
Not interested in following trends as such, Erdem concentrates only on making women look beautiful. He never thinks about what’s sexy, instead he focuses on the silhouettes and the proportions.
Click through the gallery to see the full lookbook and mark your calendars, the collection goes on sale on November 2!
Photo: Michal Pudelka
