It’s become abundantly clear that 16Arlington is not your average emerging designer label. Founded in London in 2017 by Istituto Marangoni graduates Marco Capaldo and the late Federica ‘Kikka’ Cavenati, the now cult brand is both a fashion editor favourite and worn by massive stars such as Adwoa Aboah, Michaela Coel, Simone Ashley, Olivia Rodrigo, and Hailey Bieber. Suffice to say the world has fallen in love with 16Arlington.
One of London Fashion Week’s hot tickets, 16Arlington occupies its own niche within women’s luxury fashion, offering out-all-night eveningwear that flatters and moulds to the body — think twinkling key-hole dresses, miniskirts festooned with crystals and vertiginous platform boots. It calls to those who adore the slinky sex appeal of the Tom Ford-era Gucci and dine out in refined tailoring with clever cuts.
Last season Capaldo launched menswear, and now there’s even more to obsess over. The new SS24 collection shown this afternoon broadens the offer that we so know and love, introducing something that feels more anchored in the everyday. A few days ahead of the show, friends and neighbours (they live on the same street and have a WhatsApp group chat) Capaldo and ELLE contributing editor Camille Charrière chatted about his new direction via Zoom.
Read Next
Charrière and Capaldo have built an authentic friendship over the last few months. ‘I think Marco is an incredible person. We live five minutes from each other, and we’re desperately trying to get a date in the calendar to hang out,’ says Charrière, smiling at Capaldo. ‘I think we're working in an industry which can filled with a lot of superficiality and a lot of transactional kind of behaviour. And in my relationship with Marco, I've never once felt that.’ Their friendship began in May of last year when the pair met on the dance floor of model Adwoa Aboah’s 30th birthday party.
Prior to the soiree, Charrière had heard whisperings of Capaldo’s talent via their mutual friend who waxed lyrical about the cult label. ‘I kind of knew of the label but I hadn’t really been immersed in his world,’ admits Charrière. A sighting of Aboah on her birthday in a bespoke 16Arlington olive-green crystal-laden gown stopped her in her tracks. ‘It was gorgeous. Meeting him on the night, I immediately thought, right, that’s it, I need to know more!’ The designs cater to both her inner party girl and wallflower tendencies, she continues. ‘Marco's filled an incredible space that you may think was covered [in London] but wasn’t. She’s the 1990s-inspired girl who likes simple silhouettes but also pretty things that sparkle.’
Here, Capaldo and Charrière discuss 16Arlington’s muses, why it’s not just on special occasions that women want to look and feel amazing, and finally meeting up in person.
ON THE 16ARLINGTON CUSTOMER
CHARRIÈRE: Everything in London felt quite...try hard [before 16Arlington], and I don’t mean it in a negative sense. But 16Arlington feels a little more effortless, which means that for someone like me who’s French, and is always treading that fine line between fashion and effortless fashion, this is the perfect kind of brand.
CAPALDO: I love that a lot of the women that surround 16Arlington whether they’re involved in the business or my personal life, I draw inspiration from. Adwoa could wear the most austere of outfits, but she approaches it with such ease. You’re the same; you embody that effortlessness. I think it’s that sensibility that really inspires me — and that’s the starting point of every collection.
CHARRIÈRE: Am I correct in thinking Julia Sarr-Jamois [a fashion director, stylist and consultant] is styling the show this season?
CAPALDO: Yes, Julia’s styling the show. She’s another woman who just has this effortless way of throwing things together. Obviously, the woman that inspired me the most was Kikka [Federica Cavenati]. She would pull things from my wardrobe and throw them on, and they’d look as if they'd been tailored to her.
ON SS24 AND THE PROGRESSION OF THE BRAND
CAPALDO: The jumping off-point this season was David Lynch’s film Lost Highway (1997). What intrigued me more so than the film itself, was the dialogue. It was the composition of lights; it was the way he rendered the scenes in such an artful way. I feel like a lot of inspiration came from the idea of getting in a car, and the freedom that comes with being behind the wheel and driving. I also loved the idea of blurring the lines between reality and dreams. It kind of poses the question, what could be? And for SS24, I wanted it to feel like the possibilities were endless.
CHARRIÈRE: You know, they say that if you really want to have a deep conversation with someone, go for a car ride with them, because instead of being face-to-face, you’re going to be sat side by side. And apparently there’s a different kind of intimacy that sets in where you’re more likely to be comfortable with sharing a different side to yourself. I love the idea that that’s how the collection came about.
CAPALDO: I think in terms of where the brands growing, we’re definitely building a luxury house in London, and I appreciate that you mentioned that it almost doesn’t feel ‘London.’ We are a London-based brand, but I bring my Italian heritage and European flair into building something that’s not only for the dance floor, but that is perfectly and meticulously thought through. The garments can exist as timeless pieces in a woman’s wardrobe.
I love the idea of intermixing masculine shapes with feminine. This season, you’ve got the Wall Street banker shirt and you’ve got the red dress. For me, it was about rendering it in a way that felt fresh. We’ve played with silhouettes and fabric manipulations. Some of the sequin pieces have been cut from latex; some pieces have sequins are made out of metal, so the sound emulates this kind of swirling. Feathers are reworked and are trapped under translucent latex to give them a new kind of life.
ON THE DECISION TO INTRODUCE MENSWEAR
CAPALDO: I never do anything until I feel I’m ready to do it. I’m not in the mindset of jumping on any sort of bandwagon. I love to execute an idea to perfection before I embark on it, and so it felt right introducing menswear last season. In London there’s a carte blanche in the sense that there's no right and there’s no wrong. I think because of that we sit among a pool of super talented designers.
CHARRIÈRE: I think you are hitting the nail on the head, there’s something there about how London and dressing in London is something that is really seen as a form of self-expression. I do think that everybody kind of gets away with doing whatever they want when the fuck they want. And there’s this kind of understanding that it’s not because you've done something one day but doesn’t mean that tomorrow you can’t show up wearing like something completely outrageous. It allows for your complexity as a person.
ON POST-LONDON FASHION WEEK PLANS
CAPALDO: You know, I think leading up to the show, you’re always so consumed. I’d love to just spend some time with friends and family and go with the flow. The pressure drops, the minute that the last girl has walked. You feel like you’re ready to conquer the world and do anything your heart desires.
CHARRIÈRE: I've been calling this season my revenge season. Because I’ve been doing IVF and it’s felt like I’ve been in this like dark hole of despair. And I’ve been skipping, most, if not all of the shows for the last year. So, I’m really excited because after London, I’ve got Milan and Paris. I’m guessing I’ll be literally knocking on your door to borrow some sequinned latex.
