Like a moth drawn to flame, designer Erdem Moralioglu found himself entangled in the legacy of Maria Sibylla Merian—a 17th-century German naturalist whose illustrations of metamorphosing insects predated Darwin’s revelations by centuries. "She laid the groundwork," Moralioglu mused, "for understanding life’s delicate choreography long before science had the vocabulary."
Merian wasn’t just a woman with a magnifying glass; she was a renegade who divorced her husband (scandalous!), trekked through South American jungles with her daughter, and documented species like a painter possessed. Moralioglu’s eyes sparkled recounting how British institutions—coincidentally hosting his recent shows—hoarded her delicate watercolors. "Fate," he declared, "stitches its own patterns."
The Resort 2026 collection unfolded like a Victorian explorer’s scrapbook: crumpled silk blossomed with embroidered flora, opera gloves dripped with beadwork resembling dewdrops, and lace collars framed necklines like pressed flowers in a diary. Leather became canvas for meticulous floral graffiti, while striped pajamas—worn under stern coats—whispered of midnight escapades in conservatories.
Moralioglu’s models clutched handbags shaped like overripe peonies, their flat shoes whispering rebellion against stilettos. "I wanted it to feel," he said, "like Merian herself might’ve worn these while sketching caterpillars at dawn."
In the end, Moralioglu didn’t just design clothes—he embroidered a love letter to curiosity itself. The kind that makes women divorce husbands, cross oceans, and paint wings still damp from the cocoon.
