Erdem Moralioğlu on the story behind his opera coat fit for a duchess
HOW DO YOU reinvent a British classic like the Barbour jacket ? Leave it to designer Erdem Moralioğlu to come up with an answer – a fusion of a classic waxed jacket and upcycled chintzy curtain remnants, which has just landed in stores. Inspired by the Mitford sisters and Chatsworth House, it’s less dog-walking attire, more high-fashion catnip.
‘I have always been fascinated by Deborah, the Duchess of Devonshire, and her lifetime spent in Chatsworth House. So, a collection on her was something I had always wanted to do,’ the designer tells Grazia of his S/S ’24 runway last September. After a gentle courtship with the Cavendish family, they came to an agreement. ‘I was so thrilled to spend time there and with the duchess’s former secretary, who still works in Chatsworth and has the most extraordinar y knowledge on ever ything related to Debo,’ he says.
It transpires that Erdem, Barbour and the 15th-centur y estate are a formidable match, representing Englishness and timelessness. ‘I’ve always really loved the idea of creating something that has a permanence. And I think that there’s something in the Barbour language that has a permanence to it. Those pieces are meant to last and they’re something that you can go back to for many, many years.’ Was a Barbour jacket something on his mind from the onset ? ‘I was going through her clothes and different images of her feeding the chickens, wearing these large waxed cotton coats – she was very much of the land, you know ?’ he recalls. ‘Of course, there were elements of her role that were quite formal and so I love that juxtaposition.’ It was then that the idea of a collaboration first made it on to his mood board, not out of necessity for a commercial partner, but to colour in the stor y he was going to tell.
‘I’ve never done anyt
