It’s pretty impressive to see the grand wave of collaborations taken to the next level. Forget about trainers or a line of sportswear, Dilan Lurr of Namacheko had something much bigger planned for his latest collection. We already know he’s obsessed with films – for SS19 he was inspired by Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris, while for SS20 Lurr transformed the experimental documentary Koyaanisqatsi into his dramatic garments. This season, he took his film obsession even further as he teamed up with cinematic photographer Gregory Crewdson on the making of the actual collection.
Before even designing the clothes, Dilan and his sister Lezan embarked on a trip of establishing the characters that wear the garments. That’s where Crewdson’s expertise comes in – building scenes and developing personalities within a limited environment has played a big part of his most notable photographic works, including Natural Wonder, Hover and Beneath the Roses. In Namacheko AW20, the characters carried through a contrasting dedication to making mundanity look utterly glamorous. The looks went from being somewhat classic in their silhouette to extraordinary thanks to the classically Namacheko fabrications. Rich and luxurious, there were silks printed with Crewdson’s photography as well as some impressively-crafted graphic knits, made in preparation for the finals of the Woolmark prize in which Namacheko is taking part next month.
That Dilan is a master of cutting a suit is no news, but seeing his collection extend into gala-ready gowns was a well-received surprise. Just like the duvets some of the models wore as cover-ups, they were printed with the tableaux imagery Crewdson has previously exhibited in some of the most impressive galleries in the world. Yet somehow, we’re pretty sure they never looked this good.
Photographs by Jason Lloyd-Evans.
