It has been 15 years since David Koma launched his namesake label, an impressive milestone, which has left the designer yearning for success of a different kind. “I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved,” he said, leafing through racks of clothing in his east London studio. “But I’m at a point where I just want to focus on happiness and to celebrate what brought me here in the first place.” Designers are especially prone to nostalgia and Koma is no exception; he’s currently on a mission to rediscover the creative freedom he experienced as a budding Central Saint Martins graduate. The designer’s resort collection was among the most elaborate he’s ever produced.
It began with a sculpture by Isabelle Albuquerque—a 3D-printed rendition of the artist’s precise proportions wrapped in deer skin—that Koma discovered online. “There was a mystery to the work,” he said. “It made me think about the ancient Greek idea of metamorphosis.” A handful of fawn-spotted swimsuits, bodycon dresses, and capes were a sensual translation of those preternatural fantasies; while leather saddles were reinterpreted as belt skirts, and crystallized embellishments clutched the shoulders and hips on fluid jersey gowns like talons. Glossy raffia—a substitute for fur—was stitched into aqueous pelts on a nude-sequined skirt, evoking the lustrous mane of an Akhal-Teke horse, and created an abundance of volume on beach bags and statement coats. The weight of these pieces will require an equine strength of their own.