Inspired by André Derain and shaped by the intensity of a sweltering London summer, Steve O Smith’s SS27 collection Fever transforms drawing into dress. Ink, heat and accident collide are translated into embroidery and embellishment, while a radical palette of Prussian blue, cobalt and red marks a vivid departure from the designer’s signature monochrome.
During a sweltering London summer, extreme temperatures helped shape Fever, Steve O Smith’s SS27 collection presented at London Fashion Week. Drawing inspiration from the work of Fauvist painter André Derain and his depictions of the French coast, Smith appears not so much to sew garments as to paint directly onto the body, preserving the imperfections and accidents inherent to the painterly gesture. Pools, bubbles and sediments become integral to the surface of the clothes.
The heat of Smith’s London studio played a tangible role in the creative process: the ink would dry and congeal almost instantly, leaving unpredictable formations and deposits on the paper. Rather than correcting these irregularities, Smith transformed them into decorative elements, painstakingly recreating them through embroidery, embellishment and beads that evoke droplets of sweat and condensation. The unexpected traces left by the brush are celebrated rather than concealed.
The relationship between drawing and clothing has long been central to Smith’s practice. Following his master’s degree at Central Saint Martins, undertaken during the pandemic years, the designer (whose background is rooted more deeply in drawing than in fashion) confronted a fundamental question: his sketches possessed an energy and immediacy that the finished garments had yet to retain. From this tension emerged the idea of turning the garment itself into a drawing, taking the line from paper onto the body and transforming it into something three-dimensional, life-size and wearable.
While his previous collections were dominated almost entirely by black and white, Fever marks a radical chromatic shift, eliminating black altogether. The palette is reduced to just three colours, Prussian blue, cobalt and red, directly recalling the intensity of light and bold contrasts found in Derain’s Mediterranean landscapes. Here, colour is not simply applied to the garment: it becomes material, gesture and surface, further amplified through embroidery and ornamental beadwork that translate the irregularities of ink into textile form.
Steve O Smith SS27 Images
