Aaron Esh continued his mission of building a wardrobe for those who live the cool, high-flying life, and this season, he is getting better at understanding what London’s young elites really want to wear.
Moving farther away from his menswear roots, Esh put a bigger focus on sheer gowns, and voluminous outerwear inspired by the cocoon shapes seen on Pierre Cardin’s and Cristóbal Balenciaga’s couture creations.
“I love it. I think with womenswear you are able to convince the audience of what in the world you’re trying to say. With menswear, it becomes hazy with [discussions around] gender and masculinity,” he said.
To play into the class bending theme, Esh mixed street classics like logo caps, satin bombers, and washed jeans with a modern spin on the dinner jacket, a cape-like leather coat, and cummerbunds, which were also seen around the waist of a floor-length wool coat made of roll ends of fabric supplied by Misan, a textile seller in Soho, that would have cost 200 pounds a meter.
Esh added that he screened over 500 candidates to select an ideal cast to walk the show. They included Kiki Willems, a neighbor of Esh’s, who opened the show in a sheer gown with groupie-like makeup that was melting away.
“I see her on Broadway Market in her jersey hoodie, but she walks for Chanel. That’s our woman, who’s hungover in the morning on a Sunday in her hoodie, but she has this beautiful coat on. You have to have an incredibly high bar to be an Aaron Esh boy or girl,” explained Esh of his target demographic, which one can argue shares many similarities with the characters in Emerald Fennell’s much-talked-about movie “Saltburn.”
