What do Courtney Love, Joan Collins, Charli XCX and Anna Wintour all have in common? Though small in stature, they all have a knack for self-mythologizing at a grand scale, an innate ability to craft a remarkable persona and professional niche that has been sustained, in some cases, for decades. They also have all been spotted in the front row of an Erdem fashion show.
This year, Moralioglu marks the twentieth anniversary of his mononymous independent fashion house.Ted Belton/The Globe and Mail
Richly defined female figures are who the Montreal-born, Turkish-British designer Erdem Moralioglu has built his entire career around. This year, Moralioglu marks the twentieth anniversary of his mononymous independent fashion house, a feat that’s being celebrated with a new monograph published by Rizzoli with a forward written by Wintour. Erdem debuts Oct. 7.
From the very start, Moralioglu’s collections always focused on sharply rendered women. Invitations to his runway shows often feature photographs of the iconic figures who inhabit his imagination. Maria Callas was the muse for the Fall 2024 collection, which featured an abundance of florals in textiles and embellishments. The brand’s Fall 2025 offering, a characteristically sumptuous trove of sublime dresses, separates and outerwear, was mood boarded out with film noir images and a photo of Virginia Woolf. In a spectrum of muted colours, swaths of organza feature ghostly portraits by Scottish painter Kaye Donachie. The artist is a former school mate of Moralioglu’s at the Royal College of Art, where he studied when he arrived in London in the year 2000 at age 22.
“Erdem has always been a standout designer as someone who knows exactly the woman he’s dressing,” Joseph Tang, fashion director at Holt Renfrew, says.Ted Belton/The Globe and Mail
“Kaye is known for what she calls ‘abstracted portraits,’” Moralioglu tells me as we chat between styling changes on the set for this magazine’s cover shoot in April. Escaping London, where he operates a flagship store in lofty Mayfair, he’d flown into Toronto for 72 hours of private functions and a cocktail shopping soiree at Holt Renfrew, which is carrying the fall collection. “She has a method of looking at a woman’s character through her work,” he says about Kaye’s subject matter. “She’s often examining people like Virginia Woolf, Vita Sackville-West, Iris Tree – these women are such interesting characters.”
The way Moralioglu says “characters” with vocal italics suggests a deep analysis of the women who have influenced his work, a cadre of both household names and obscure cultural paragons. For all the brand’s ostrich feathered finery and references to opera divas and literary darlings, part of the enchantment – and, undoubtedly, longevity – of the company lies in the fact that its designs are never outrageously out-of-touch, or made with the painfully obvious purpose of spending an hour on the celebrity du jour. Though his shows attract It-girls and A-listers, they also make space for artist Tracey Emin and photographer Autumn de Wilde, the kind of women idolized by other women with a strong cultural compass. His adoptive home acknowledged his loyal fan base when, in 2020, Moralioglu received an MBE for services to the fashion industry as part of the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
“Erdem has always been a standout designer as someone who knows exactly the woman he’s dressing,” Joseph Tang, fashion director at Holt Renfrew, says. One of Tang’s favourite Erdem moments was the Spring 2020 collection, which was staged in a canopied square in London’s Camden. “I remember you could hear a pin drop before the models came out,” Tang says. The silence was broken by a swell of string instruments and the crunch of the stone pathway beneath each model’s feet, followed by a visual feast: Victorian maxi dresses made with riotously printed fabrics, exuberant poncho-capes and relaxed suiting.
That season’s inspiration came from the work of a tragic heroine, Italian photographer Tina Modotti, who documented the lives of Mexican women while she lived in Mexico City in the 1920s. Moralioglu synthesized designs that at once spoke to Modotti and the women she immortalized through her photography.
When I ask how he divines the sources who shape his concepts, Moralioglu says “it depends on the season, and how I find them.” For his gender-blending Spring 2019 collection, the storyline was derived from the lives of Frederick William Park and Ernest Boulton, two Victorian era, Bloomsbury-area residents who went by the names Fanny and Stella and dressed in women’s clothing. “I was researching gay and trans history at the National Portrait Gallery, and looking at images of them, and of people in their orbit,” Moralioglu says. “It was fascinating – they were extraordinary. And they lived in Bloomsbury, like my husband and me.”
Moralioglu’s approach to amplifying the stories of queer and feminist icons is well considered. “I love the fact that he is so intellectually driven in terms of making the clothes feel like more than just garments you’re wearing,” Tang says. “He makes them feel like an extension of your personality.”
Moralioglu’s devotion to his customers has resulted in a partnership with the body-inclusive company Universal Standard to create an extended-size range of his designs. More recently, he collaborated with the British heritage brand Barbour on a five-piece capsule collection released this year. “Erdem places a strong emphasis on quality and authenticity, forging deep connections with its audience,” says Barbour’s director of women’s wear, Nicola Brown. “Its dedication to storytelling through romantic, detailed collections has allowed it to carve out a unique space in the fashion world.”
There was just one thing his customers were missing: an Erdem handbag. Earlier this year, Moralioglu finally introduced the Bloom Bag, a graceful handmade leather purse boasting a brass floral handle created with a traditional jewellery-making technique called lost wax casting. It’s been 20 years in the making, a timeline that speaks volumes about his legacy-building philosophy.
“I believe in the permanence of things,” Moralioglu says. “I think when you resolve something beautifully, I really believe in that lasting. And there’s nothing more satisfying than seeing someone wearing something you’ve designed from last season or from 12 years ago. It’s thrilling.”
Fashion Editor: Nadia Pizzimenti. Makeup by Lateisha Grant for Danessa Myricks/P1M.ca. Makeup assistant: Rachel Cornett. Hair by Mélanie Guille. Hair assistant: Lisa Kolmakova. Manicurist: Leeanne Colley using Essie and CND for P1M.ca. Models: Nyadora Jany at Anita Norris Models, Ciara McCluskey and Kat Nie at Want Model Management. Photo assistants: John Murphy and Juan Diego Delgado. Styling assistant: Kristyn Matthews.
