Some had been surprised at the first Marr Factory show when ShowRoom 22’s Murray Bevan moved them aside to form a makeshift runway. At Kate Sylvester’s ‘All My Heart’ showing last night though, people knew the drill. By ten to nine (and with little direction from Bevan) a long space had already been cleared and people were squeezed firmly in place, cameras at the ready.
What was unexpected was the first model entering not through the back entrance (as had been done at the previous four shows) but through a side door which had been spraypainted overhead with the words ‘KS Back Stage’. Fitting for a label which deftly combines the sexy with the demure. The opening outfit, an aristocratic red suit with black lapels, could easily take a girl from work to grandma’s to a night on the town without the need for a costume change.
Amping up the sex appeal was the hair and makeup – done to give the girls the look of just having had “a roll in the hay”. Think full, backcombed hair and lightly flushed skin, with “undone” smudgy tan eyes.
What makes the five designers behind the Marr Factory shows so exciting is their complete understanding of the person they’re designing for. So even if you’d never imagined yourself as Jane Eyre, holidaying in the South of France with Mr Rochester, if you’re a KS fan then that’s exactly what you would want to be after seeing last night’s show. At least, you would do if you could take along the trousseau Sylvester’s prepared for the trip. Those lattice work cutouts! That gilded lace! The lingerie style slips, pyjama shirts, long sheer skirts and those leather collars styled on nearly every outfit which suddenly seem nothing short of a summer necessity. All of it was exquisite, enticing, and – like Jane – with never a button undone. Next week’s designers have high standards to live up to.
– Delaney MacDonald
Imagery: Oliver Rose