>> The last time I was in Limelight in London, I was necking overly-sweet WKD drinks, dancing to the Artful Dodger and thought my Miss Selfridge paisley polyester top was awesome. Who knew that more than a decade later, I’d be back inside this former nightclub, that’s yet to be converted into an arts centre, and be flung into a topsy turvy world of circus freaks – or as Sophia Webster has dubbed it – her “Cirque du Sophia”. The instant reference of course for Webster and set designer Shona Heath, who transformed this derelict church space, has to be the Bauhaus classic, Oskar Schlemmer’s Das Triadisches Ballett. It’s a familiar reference, influencing the likes of Jean-Paul Goude and winding up on countless designer mood boards. The costumes of the Triadic Ballet are singular and their costumes pointed to a far-far-away future that hasn’t actually quite happened yet, even nearly a hundred years down the line from when the ballet was first debuted. That said, it was an ambitious mise-en-scene for Webster to attempt. The models in their bulbous and cuboid sculpture costumes were after all, merely meant to be showing off the shoes and the bags.
Webster cleverly combines both eyeball-grabbing set and product though so that, the former doesn’t overshadow the latter. These surreal humanoid beings with their bulbous curves and hard-edged cuboid angles can join Webster’s past gatherings of human Barbie dolls, garden fairies and jungle raver chicks, and all the other mini-universes that collectively spin out shoes and bags in Webster language. This season that includes sassy slogans a-plenty, flat thigh-high boots and a capsule collaboration with Coca-Cola.
Even though Leigh Bowery-esque catsuited person was doing “freakshow” type body contortioning at the beginning of the collection, there definitely isn’t anything freaky about Webster’s collection .
With thanks to Mercedes-Benz for providing transporation