In this hyper-digital age, it can feel like we’re living in two different worlds. Online, texts are painstakingly crafted, images reshaped, and some AI-generated content completely preternatural. Offline, things are awkward. Your hair’s got flyaways and that one pimple just won’t go away. Yikes!
That’s what made John Alexander Skelton’s fall 2026 show feel particularly relevant. Referencing Celtic culture and folklore, he was also drawn to the idea of two worlds, albeit through his striking Dickensian lens.
Set in the crumbling and chilly Asylum Chapel – unfortunately, insulation wasn’t quite that common in 1862 – the audience sat in concentric circles, the outermost ring featuring mysterious statues under draped cloth.
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Then, the lights dimmed, and out strode two fellows wearing fabulously sinister masks inspired by Cernunnos, the horned Celtic god of the wild and the underworld.
One banged a traditional frame drum as the other recited poetry. Mischievously prowling among the audience, the poet – portraying a deity that takes people into another world – playfully prodded and poked some attendees. (Regretfully, this writer wasn’t among the chosen few, so no report on fashion from the other realm.)
Every so often, the actor darted between the crowd, whipping off cloth covers with a whoosh! to reveal scarecrows dressed in looks from the collection. These straw effigies were inspired by Celtic festival Samhain, a time when the veil between worlds is at its thinnest, and photographer Colin Garrett’s “Scarecrows.”
“I’ve always been fascinated by scarecrows,” Skelton explained. “There’s a weird duality with them where they can feel kitsch and also quite evil.”
That duality translates to Skelton’s clothes. They’re otherworldly in their fantastical feel, literally, with cutaway jackets, trousers, and shirts in bronze, cream, and black jacquard, and metaphorically, with their period flair. But nubby knitwear made with undyed wools and cooly rumpled linens, and roughly hewn finishes ground everything in reality.
If, like me, you aren’t whisked off to the Otherworld, good news – Skelton’s clothes are in this one. And here to stay, if the mob of people trying to squeeze into the over-capacity church has anything to say about it.
