‘Medical’ as a theme has a diverse fashion history. Alexander McQueen built a padded asylum cell for his Spring 2001 collection, VOSS, to explore states of madness and incarceration, asking Erin O’ Connor to “go mental, have a nervous breakdown, die, and then come back to life”. Meanwhile, Marc Jacobs’s SS08 collection for Louis Vuitton saw kinky nurses in see-through plastic coats, caps and surgical masks bring a tongue-in-cheek, pop cultural reference to the catwalk, inspired by notorious copycat artist, Richard Prince.
For her latest collection showcased at London Fashion Week, British-Indian designer Supriya Lele also embarked on an exploration of the medical world, albeit one that is far more grounded in family roots. “I spoke to my mum, aunt, and grandma quite a bit as part of research for the collection,” Lele, who comes from a long line of female doctors, tells SLEEK. “I literally got scrubs from the hospital and cut them apart to see how they might work. Then I looked a lot at images of old nurses uniforms, saris and a lot of bodices.”
Inescapably, a fetish element comes into play with Lele’s take on uniforms. Nurses, from Elle Driver in Kill Bill to Paz de La Huerta in Nurse 3D, are ever present as sexualised figures in popular culture, and Lele indulges in these references through her use of slick cotton-backed black rubber to sculpt form-fitting bodices, fetish wear-inspired apron skirts, as well as suggestive white tights tucked into Manolo Blahniks. The resulting silhouettes evoke a sultry, dominatrix air of authority. Lele’s key goal, however, is to create ultra feminine drapery that gives her women a sense of empowerment, rather than a feeling of objectification as projected by the male gaze.
“We wanted to keep it quite chic,” says Lele, pointing to the significance of luxurious silks, Steiff faux mohair fur and high-end technical nylons from Italy, throughout. This was a woman’s vision of a matriarch who commands sexual prowess in a subdued and authoritative fashion, quite a contrast to Richard Malone’s AW19 exploration of a mother figure on the school run with the kids.
Lele’s mixed British-Indian heritage also made a stamp on the collection: pale NHS-blue crosses were sourced from a traditional Indian textile motif, Madras check was juxtaposed with heritage British Hainsworth wool, deconstructed floral textiles clashed with a layer of fluoro-gossamer mesh, and sari designs were styled with kilts. Yet, Lele’s latest offering neither felt wholly Indian or British, concept or luxury driven, technical or high-end, but something far more intricate and new. “If you look at my clothes on a rail, and didn’t know the personal story, I would hope you would just think of them as really nice clothes, rather than derivative of a certain culture,” says Lele. “I make these clothes from my own experiences, so I don’t see them either as traditional or contemporary.”
The former architecture student’s artistry seamlessly blends a myriad of reference points. Where there could have been a simplistic colour palette of powder blue scrubs, sterile white lab coats or A&E blood red, Lele chose earthy rusts, warm terracotta and olive green teals instead, creating a more elusive character for her women — save for the occasional punch of neon referencing rave culture. The models, meanwhile, hailed from white, African and Asian heritage.
The presentation-catwalk, complete with a hospital-inspired set, constructed from inky-brown rubber ward curtains backlit by surgical examination lighting, designed by Alice Kirkpatrick, and pulse-driven soundtrack by upcoming ambient producer Sky-H1, further elevated this collection far higher than Lele’s previous shows. Of particular note was tailoring cut closer to the female form, replacing a looser masculine silhouette, inspired by her grandfather’s safari hunting jacket, as seen at her AW18 show with talent incubator Fashion East.
Having mastered the sensual drapery of the sari, and high-tech language of sportswear in previous collections, Lele has grown immensely as a designer. She is developing a set of visual codes for her brand that she can confidently play with: unique wide-necked bra tops inspired by sari blouses were layered over intricate metallic pieces gleaming like armour, and coats displaying bright orange mohair panels.
While division over Brexit dominates mainstream UK headlines, within Lele’s work there is less tension between West and East than ever before. The clash between futuristic and heritage references is over, replaced with garments that feel like a complete wardrobe for a woman fully living in the present. The former Midlands punk-goth, appears to have let go of judgement and fear, embracing a new considered attitude that will place her on a fast-track to making her mark internationally.
See the rest of Lele’s AW19 collection below:
Images courtesy of Supriya Lele. Copyright Chris Yates.