It’s not often you dine in the crypt of a church while it’s being used as a backstage area for a fashion show. For a lucky group of rubberneckers, Matty Bovan made that possible tonight. The backstage was located in St Martin-in-the-Fields, and with the exception of the 40-seater dining table running through it, everything looked as backstages do. The beauty teams (Miranda Joyce, agency Lisa Eldridge) and the hair crew (Claire Grech) had done most of their work, but were still perfecting it. The stylist (Bovan himself) zoomed between Ashley Graham, Winnie Harlow and their fellow castmates, adding a final layer of attention and care to looks that included garments – Bovan’s 15th collection – that had clearly already been the subject of many hours of handwork and creativity. Acielle shot like a trouper.
Bovan stopped to sit next to Vogue Runway and said, “I love the idea of doing a show where the front row can see the back of the screens up close. And they get to see the textiles and the details.” His plan was great, with just one flaw: so rich was the Bistrotèque-penned lobster pie, and so spicy the gem salad, and so tastier the gin cocktails, that many of the guests were understandably as focused on the vittles as the details. But as the lineup took shape, professionalism started to kick in.
Even in the darkness of the backstage, a collection that Bovan said was “a beacon of light” during a difficult year shone with work and thought. Each piece is conceived as a sculpture built around the wearer and a covering of Calvin Klein underwear. The dresses were controlled explosions of upcycled fabric, bleached and over-dyed, whose laboriously assembled numerous scraps twisted and writhed around each other to ignite a whole. Embroidery on corsets and a script written by Bovan added a touch of energy and meaning. Although created with immense craftsmanship and seriousness, the ending was joyful and infectious: choreographed by Simon Donnellon, the models moved into a small show room (we watched on screen) to inhabit Bovan’s clothes with a series of verve-filled poses.
Bovan’s practice is so rich, so analogous and so instinctive that you wonder how he knows when to stop working on a piece – that it is done. He said, “Well, it’s like making a painting or a sculpture. I keep coming back, a day later, a week later: you know, it’s just a gut feeling.” He added: “In a world of digital and AI, I want to do real things: real life, physical. My world is a complete fantasy, but it is here in reality.” Bovan breaks through the boundaries of conventions in clothing like no other.
