For this unique project, Erdem collaborates with Bazaar Art to create a visual essay featuring a quintet of British art-world icons: two Turner Prize winners – Gillian Wearing and Veronica Ryan - along with Jenny Saville, Director of Tate Maria Balshaw and acclaimed painter Kaye Donachie.
Erdem captures the artists in the state of being 'done' and 'undone: in the former, appearing as they would on a normal day - in paint-splattered trainers, perhaps; in the latter, composed and dramatic, clothed in sculptural ERDEM regalia.
Erdem has long been fascinated by this dichotomy, which he wanted to dissect by visualising the artists' inner and outer worlds. 'What they all do is deeply personal, he explains. There's an aspect to their process that's so introspective. But in allowing the world to see their work, there is an element of being exposed. This project meditates on the contrast between those two things.'
Art is a constant presence in Moralioglu's life, an interest fostered by his mother when he was young. Narrative is the backbone of his designs; the discovery of a historical nugget might transmute into a full-blown season. He drew from stories of the Georgian 'fallen women' who had inhabited his Bloomsbury home for his Autumn Winter 23 collection; prior to that, he had immersed himself in the National Gallery and British Museum archives, inspired by the practice of restoration. For Moralioglu, an artwork does not exist in a vacuum, but is shaped by the circumstances and process of its maker.