Christopher Kane does “sexy” like no one else. But his “sexiness” hits different. The spring-summer 2023 collection was about the body. Literally. “I’m dissecting a woman. Dissecting her in the best possible ways. It’s forensic. In a good way!” And it was definitely about his own body of work. Here were Christopher Kane’s clinical obsessions, his taste for dodgy materials mixed with sweet-and-innocent ones, his chainmail and cup-cake shapes and his frank praise of sensuality, all metabolized in new ways. Dresses with clear vinyl body-brace straps with inset lace bra cups were the highlights of the line-up. Pretty pastel organza and white lingerie-lace edged skirts, doubled up into loops – another show-stopper. Then bouncy little mini-crini dresses of a Kane kind, suspended from geometric panels he described as “sliced with a scalpel.” Scottish cashmere cardigan-capes underlined the tension between sexy and regal. Kane printed a nurse’s dress and sheer twinset with pink roses. Was that an echo of the floral stickers he’d used 10 years ago, in his spring 2012 show? Well yes, but no. “Flowers are symbolic of love and death. It was all these things: celebration or condolence.” That is life. One of the flower-embedded vinyl dresses had a cutout pair of medical-illustration hands wrapped around its middle as a belt, a woman creepily turned into a human plastic-covered bouquet.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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