If we already didn’t know that it’s a tough time for independent designers, today’s news that Christopher Kane has begun proceedings to shutter his label is proof of the gravity of the situation. Kane is a rare breed, an original talent whose 2006 graduate collection from Central Saint Martins made him an instant fashion star at 23. Straddling the line of good and bad taste, his short bodycon dresses in neon lace remain indelible a decade-and-a-half later.
Before he even hit the London Fashion Week runway he had caught the eye of Donatella Versace, who hired him as a consultant, and even loaned him shoes for his debut show. Later, when she relaunched the Versus line in 2010 she would enlist Kane to head it up, and he delivered witty and playful collections for the brand for three years.
Around the time of Kane’s graduation, London had become a sleepy fashion town; an anomaly considering all the young talent that the city’s design schools attracted. Around the millennium, London talent was being scooped up by houses in Paris or Milan (as was the case with Stella McCartney, Phoebe Philo, and Riccardo Tisci among others, and John Galliano and Alexander McQueen before them). But Kane — and his sister Tammy, with whom he worked from the very beginning — were part of new cohort of independent designers who included Erdem Moralioglu, Mary Katrantzou, Jonathan Saunders, Roksanda Ilincic, and the Meadham Kirchoff duo. Together, they lit up the young London fashion scene. By 2009, the city had become so hot, it didn’t surprise anyone when Christopher Bailey decided to bring Burberry back home from Milan.
But Kane wasn’t a one-trick bodycon pony. His fourth collection, for fall 2008, was inspired by Planet of the Apes, which figured literally with images of shrieking gorillas plastered across otherwise very prim and proper little black dresses, and more figuratively in the thousands of circular fabric pieces that he sewed together to create softly sculptural dresses that both concealed and revealed the form within. Another memorable collection was fall 2012, when a live nude drawing class became the inspiration for the silhouettes of reclining nudes that decorated elegant and romantic lace numbers in shades of blue and orange and pink and black and white. And yes, like so much of what he did, they were a bit naughty. A decade in, he was still innovating. His 10 year anniversary show in 2017 featured a collaboration with Crocs—a full year before they would debut on the Balenciaga runway and cause a furor. Kane’s were decorated with rocks and crystals, like a science experiment.
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