Because Edward Meadham is back with a sophomore edition of his own brand Blue Roses. After launching in December 2016 exclusively at Dover Street Market, the second capsule collection has now expanded into the realms of e-tail with Matches Fashion taking the dark-romance fashion into their own virtual shelves. All of the pieces designed by Meadham (previously of the cult noughties London brand Meadham Kirchhoff) evoke an eclectic range of references celebrating the cult of femininity. Influences start with corseted Victorian dresses and go all the way to notorious Riot grrrl printed t-shirts, with a unique blending hand of Meadham’s Central Saint Martins-bred creativity. This naively gothic collection is a treat for all the Meadham Kirchhoff fans and offers any girl, woman, boy or man to feel like a fantasy character
Here’s what Edward has to say about the second edition of Blue Roses:
Because: After launching Blue Roses in late 2016, what did you change going into the second collection?
Edward: What I wanted for chapter two was to begin to expand and develop the range and to begin to take steps towards it becoming options to put together a full look.
B: Why did you want your clothes to be instantly shoppable both online at Matches and in-stores with Dover Street Market rather than doing a presentation or a fashion show?
E: It was not really a conscious decision, but more of an opportunity presented to me by Adrian [Joffe, president of Dover Street Market]. I didn’t really know what to do for a while and had no resources – to make anything felt quite impossible with shows costing a lot of money, but Adrian presented me with the wonderful opportunity of financing production of small collections, and that’s how Blue Roses began.
B: As you're showing your collections directly to the customer, how does the process of creating a collection change from showing at fashion week?
E: It changes things a lot. When I used to do shows I would spend 6 months thinking about nothing else but that, imagining and becoming this "character in a world" and making hundreds of pieces to present in this little temporary environment of the show. I always considered the shows as small fragmented plays. Now that that context is removed, I needed to think of 20 or so pieces that will exist in a very different type of context and hopefully have appeal to a customer. The actual process of creation is now a tiny fraction of what it was before.
B: Your references are very eclectic and include everything from 19th century paintings, Victorian dress to 1970s designs of Ossie Clark. This colourful mood board is something that we can trace all the way back to your work at Meadham Kirchhoff. What have your research resources been and how have they changed?
E: I do my research mainly in the library at Central Saint Martins, but in these modern days I also can’t help being influenced by the imagery I see on my phone. Also, Google has a new arts app [Google Arts and Culture] that has an enormous database of old paintings and dresses. But I have been looking at imagery of all kinds my whole life, so I have a very eclectic and jumbled mental database of references which means inevitably anything and everything I see or hear can go into the mix of my thought process.
B: What five women would you invite to a fantasy Blue Roses Chapter Two launch dinner and where would it be?
E: My ideal dinner party company would be Courtney Love, Lydia Lunch, Cindy Sherman, Madonna and Marie Antoinette, and I would like it to be high tea somewhere really fancy.
B: It's probably a bit too soon, but what and when is Blue Roses Chapter Three going to be?
E:I hope to continue to expand the range and refine it. I want to make better and more beautiful clothes and accessories, and hope to develop a customer base for them.
Blue Roses Chapter Two is available from Matches Fashion and Dover Street Market London, 18-22 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4DG, with prices starting from £48.
Interview by Dino Bonacic
