Christopher Kane

Carrying on london’s proud tradition of fashion provocation, the designer celebrates a decade of turning the subversive into the sublime.

- Eric Wilson

Christopher Kane is a fan of the macabre: Car crashes, decaying flowers, and even monsters have inspired collections that somehow uncover an unexpected beauty in dark things. Lately, though, since the death of his mother last year, his designs have also been tinged with sweet nostalgia. “All of my work is in some way autobiographical,” he says in a phone interview from his home in London. “And her passing made me dig deeper into the history of my childhood in Scotland.”

At your fall show, you mentioned something about looking at hoarders and outsiders. As a designer, what did you see in them?

Yes, well, I’m not a follower of trends. I do something very emotive and personal. Having grown up in a small, provincial town, I have always been fascinated by people who create their own little fantasy world. Sometimes it’s about the idea of expired beauty or how people discard beauty as they get older. But just because they don’t look like everyone else doesn’t mean they aren’t as amazing.

You embrace what others would discard— leather that looks like cardboard and rain hats made of plastic.