When beloved occasion put on label Self-Portrait introduced the launch of a residency programme with Christopher Kane as its inaugural designer, the style trade let loose a collective squeal of pleasure.
In any case, Christopher Kane is one in every of Britain’s brightest trend skills of the final 20 years, and when it was introduced that his namesake label is perhaps getting into administration in 2023, it fed a rising worry that the financial downturn was stripping us of our artistic minds. So the information of Christopher kicking off Self-Portrait’s residency programme, which serves to ask creatives from all disciplines to reinterpret the model, was a welcome shock.
Han Chong, Self-Portrait’s founder and inventive director, imagined the programme as an area for designers to come back collectively and alternate concepts, and foster collaboration in a time when trend has change into more and more remoted and aggressive.
“My ambition for Self-Portrait has always been to create an inclusive brand, one that empowers with every interaction, and one that focuses on community over competition,” says Han. “This ethos was the starting point when conceiving our new Residency programme. To me, this represents the future of genuine partnership, where creatives support and uplift each other rather than seeing each other as rivals.”
Han turned his decade-old label into a world success adored by each It-girl from Gigi Hadid to Blackpink’s Jisoo due to his enjoyable, flirty up to date event put on supplied at a comparatively accessible value level. Now, the Malaysian designer opens up his Harella Home studio for different creatives he’d lengthy admired, like Christopher Kane, to create one-of-a-kind capsules that merge their distinctive viewpoint with Self-Portrait’s DNA.
Christopher and Han, each Central Saint Martin’s alumni, regularly crossed paths on the style circuit, however it was solely when a mutual good friend invited Christopher to the Self-Portrait studio, that the seed for a fruitful partnership was planted. “Han saw a post I’d shared on my Instagram about my debut Spring/summer 2007 collection and told me he found it inspiring, and he then shared his vision for the Self-Portrait residency and invited me to be the first designer,” Christopher tells GLAMOUR. Immediately, we get to reap the rewards of that fateful encounter.
The capsule sees Christopher mine his debut assortment that put him on the map, due to its daring use of highlighter hues and ultra-mini silhouettes. “The beauty of working on my SS07 collection was that it was like working with an old friend, I know it inside out,” says Christopher, who reinterprets key elements like the bandage dress in knit for the Self-Portrait residency. “I wanted to bring joy and celebration for both of our successes. This collection is unapologetically feminine, with pieces in there for everyone to wear.”
Certainly, there’s one thing for everybody, from delicate pink lace attire with strategic tulle cutouts to Christopher’s immediately recognisable tape attire, this time in lilac quite than neon, and ruffles down the edges. The place to begin for the gathering was truly a stretch lace catsuit, one in every of his favourites. “It’s so wrong; it’s right.” That tongue-in-cheek, at instances subversive method to trend (Christopher was identified to take inspiration from membership tradition and fetish put on) is what he brings to this new chapter, stretching the boundaries of Self-Portrait’s extra elegant kinds.
And who higher to entrance the marketing campaign of the edgy assortment than model icon Carine Roitfeld, former editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris and founding father of her personal bi-annual journal CR Trend Guide and an enormous supporter of Christopher from the very starting. “She commissioned a piece from my very first collection, and it was the biggest compliment ever,” says Christopher.
The residency is also part of Han’s dedication to maintaining Self-Portrait’s London roots and giving back to its home, a place that both he and Christopher take pride in. “I think there is an energy here in the fashion schools that is very liberating,” he says. “Central St Martins where we both attended, had a unique approach in that the tutors are often designers themselves, so they treat you like a colleague, and it is up to you to manage your diary, your collections, it makes you very resourceful and resilient, which ultimately prepares you for real life after graduation.”
Given Christopher’s prolific nature, we’re sure that is solely the primary of many extra collaborations and capsules to come back, however for now you may choose up one of many mini bandage attire from the Self-Portrait Residency assortment to your upcoming fetes in shops or on-line. See you on the dance flooring.
