SS22: Richard Malone.
Forget Ben Stiller’s Night at the Living Museum, Richard Malone’s SS22 collection brought us night at the living V&A. Staged within the newly renovated Raphael Court, home to various antique renaissance treasures, Malone played about intertwining the old with the new. And the garments - works of art in their own right - appearing as if they’d climbed straight out of the museum’s fabled archives and onto the runway before us.
It wouldn’t be a Malone collection without his idiosyncratic use of textural exploration and on this, the garments did not disappoint. Introducing strong, voluminous ruffles sprawled across mini to mid length dresses in bold reds and emerald greens. A sweet, nostalgic notion to a childhood spent in Ireland, where his grandmother would painstakingly handcraft Rosettes for the Gaelic Athletic Association. Exaggerated silhouettes, bright colours and daring leathers all made their sweet return, but the biggest showstopper? It had to be the giant, skeletal-like structures closing the show. Each gently draping fabrics from height, like curtains, that oscillate softly about in the air behind them.
The show also marked the launch of Malone’s exciting new endeavour with British bag-crafting legends, Mulberry. In celebration of the brand’s 50th anniversary, the recent LVMH prize nominee not only reconfigured the label’s iconic Bayswater and Darley bags, exposing typical interior-found pockets and key fobs onto the outside, but also altered their environmental impact - for the better. Insisting the inclusion of Eco Scotch grain and gold standard leather into their production methods. Malone even reworked deadstock leather from Mulberry’s cupboards into the season’s garments, forming colourful knee-length, wide collared coats.
Since graduating among Central Saint Martins’ class of ’14, Malone has emerged as one of the very few to wholeheartedly - and successfully - build a brand centred on sustainability and ethics. But with an irreversible climate crisis looming, here’s to hoping more will follow his lead.
Writer Susie Lethbridge.
