Why Mother of Pearl is the London Fashion Week name to covet - and shop - right now
You know things have changed when a fashion breakfast is studied with the same intensity as the looks on the catwalk. At Mother of Pearl’s show this morning at the Ned Hotel in The City, the avocado toast, banana and quinoa porridge and green juices with floating violets were hitting the numbers on Instagram, as they were doubtless designed to do.
It may seem tangential to the actual clothes, but fashion has always been about aspiration and with a little flair, a small label like Mother of Pearl can gain a lot of traction. “In terms of awareness, the change from a year ago is enormous,” says Amy Powney, Mother of Pearl’s 32 year-old creative director.
Could she compete with the mighty Burberry, showing later today? Burberry, whose revenue last year topped ￡2.5 billion has fat advertising budgets, employs Mario Testino, inter alia, to shoot its advertising campaigns, which have recently starred Lily James, Eddie Redmayne and Glenda Jackson, not to mention its blockbuster shows and celebrity garlanded front rows?
In sheer numbers probably not. But Powney’s unstoppable energy and focus have propelled this from an all too niche piece of whimsy into a fashionable – and relatively affordable – favourite with its own buzzing website, and a slot on the prestigious London Fashion Week schedule.
When it was launched in 2002 by Damient Hirst’s then wife, Maia Norman, it was largely as a vehicle for collaborations with her artist friends. Nice idea, but hard to sell in store. For a while there were no UK stockists. Then Powney re-positioned it as a source of embellished yet pragmatic tomboyish femininity, with prices between ￡195 and ￡795.
This new collection went big on trousers – high waisted, wide, cinched in at the waist, in brocades, deckchair stripes, chintzy florals, or tailored denim, they are part of next Spring’s wardrobe of spruced-up casuals. Inspired, she said, by interiors fabrics, Caravaggio and Larry Sultan, the photographer who enshrined Palm Springs’ taste, Powney worked them into loose trouser suits and jumpsuits, studded them with gob-stopper sized pearls and sent them on their way with cosy, mile-long scarves oversized clutch bags made from cushions. One approach she shares with Burberry: the whole collection is available to buy now. “Who knows if this will work long term, “ she said, “But the beauty of our company is that we have the flexibility to try out new things”.
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