16Arlington

It may be nearly four months since Halloween passed, but it’s still spooky season in the 16Arlington household. For his fall collection, Marco Capaldo headed to the dark side with a collection that celebrated popular culture’s freaks and outcasts—but came filtered through his refined lens to make for an impressive showcase of just how far his brand has come.

First, though, to Capaldo’s starting point for the collection. Last year, he discovered writer and curator Charlie Fox’s 2017 book, This Young Monster—a riotous and astonishingly erudite survey of how monsters haunt the cultural consciousness, from David Lynch to Buffy the Vampire Slayer to the work of Alexander McQueen—and quickly became obsessed. “I read the book over and over again, and I think what attracted me to it were two things,” said Capaldo at a preview. “First, what we associate with monsters on a surface level: the size, the texture, the skin, the fur. But beyond that, I also fell in love with the vulnerability of what they represent. They help us understand the unknown, and by doing that, they push the world forward.” Another touchstone for Capaldo was Madonna’s “Human Nature”—“I’ve been playing it nonstop for the past six months, and I think my team wants to kill me,” he joked—not only for its fierce lyrics that serve as an unapologetic riposte to her critics, but also for what Madonna represents more broadly. “She doesn’t conform, she challenges the status quo, she’s constantly pushing boundaries,” Capaldo added. “She once said that the most controversial thing she’s ever done is stick around.”

It may sound like an impossibly sprawling constellation of references, but Capaldo confidently distilled it into a tight collection of sharp, grown-up clothes. (Held in the sleek curved space of a gallery at the Barbican Centre under a stream of white light, with a sparse soundtrack of twinkling piano over four-to-the-floor beats crafted by the avant-pop producer Felicita, the setup neatly reflected his desire to pare things back a little.) The opening looks in head-to-toe black were 16Arlington at its most sophisticated and essential: a sweeping, perfectly cut duster coat, a slinky halter-neck dress with pannier-like details at the waist, and a sheer dress with swishy pleats that breezed behind the model as she walked.

From that bold opening, the more subversive, grotesque details began to creep in, however subtly. Shaggy faux fur was lavished across oversized bags and coats, or sprouted in sickly colors from belt buckles; elsewhere, Capaldo flirted with (deliberate) bad taste through so-bad-they’re-good varnished leather trousers in teal and mauve, as well as a final series of looks covered in frothy silver tinsel. “I wanted to mix colors and textures that don’t sound like they’d work on paper—sheer and matte, fluffy and glossy—and be a bit more playful with it,” he added.

What was less visible on the runway, but striking when seen on the rack, was the level of savoir faire. Take a closer look at those coats and you notice the faux fur was woven through in a chevron pattern inspired by a floor from Twin Peaks; brush a hand over the headmistress-chic felted wool and ostrich leather pleated skirts, and what strikes you most is their luxuriousness and heft. “I really wanted to make sure that the clothes are just as beautiful on the inside,” Capaldo said.

A series of dresses and skirts was cut from a shimmering organza that featured a glitchy checked print—inspired by a line in Fox’s book that describes a vision of “smoke under the surface of the skin”—while a pair of gowns with sheer turtleneck tops, scalloped waistlines, and rippling skirts fitted the models like a second skin. (Also worth shouting out is Capaldo’s increasingly assured ability to design for a broader range of sizes, with some immaculate tailoring for the curve models who walked.) In past seasons, the designer has voiced his ambitions to establish 16Arlington as a new British luxury house—with impeccably made clothes like these, he’s on the right track.