Matty Bovan pulled out all the stops for his first in-person presentation in over two years, enlisting Irina Shayk to model his designs at The Crypt at St Martin-in-the-Fields on February 18. The Russian design house kicked off London Fashion Week with a bang, storming Bovan’s runway near Trafalgar Square in a scarlet puffball gown Storm Eunice be damned before transitioning into a patchwork gingham gown for an epic climax. What’s the source of the gathering’s inspiration?
“The notion of America is a fever dream,” according to Bovan’s detailed notes to participants. “Growing up, I was highly impacted by American pop culture, with TV shows set in high schools, American baseball, pep rallies, and cheerleaders, which always felt so thrilling, yet so far away,” he wrote. Instead of delivering more clichéd references to John Hughes films, the Yorkshire-born genius decamped to the Mark Twain Library’s archives in Redding, Connecticut, where he spent months studying people’s artwork for his autumn/winter 2022 collection. When he’s designing, is he using his mood board?
Photos exhibit the Pennsylvania Dutch group’s elaborate craft traditions, particularly hex indicators, among a variety of American quilts. In practice, this meant American lace flags, bright star-spangled capes, and sumptuous knitted wools, all of which were shown alongside Bovan’s own Polaroids from his “two months in deepest Connecticut.” That is what Laura Ingalls Wilder would put on if she stepped during the looking glass and then decided to go to a pep rally – and I intend that as the highest compliment.
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