In Search of Debo
The Mitford sisters have long exercised a hold on the public’s imagination, now it’s the turn of fashion designer to royalty, Erdem Moralioğlu, to get in on the act with ‘Imaginary Conversations,’ a show based on the life and wardrobe of Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire, (Debo) the youngest Mitford. In 1941 she married Andrew Cavendish, the 11th Duke of Devonshire. The Devonshires had resided at Chatsworth since its construction in 1549, but when the couple inherited it in the 1950s, Chatsworth had fallen into terrible disrepair. Debo was largely responsible for restoring the estate, gradually introducing successful commercial operations, run since 1981 by the Chatsworth House Trust. The Trust has a reputation for imaginative and unusual exhibitions, informed by ‘Stoker’ the 11th Duke’s passion for commissioning contemporary works. This new project comes under the auspices of the 12th Duke.
Image: Installation view of Imaginary Conversations: An ERDEM collection inspired by Duchess Deborah at Chatsworth, 2024, courtesy Chatsworth House Trust.
Erdem Moralioğlu, is no stranger to taking inspiration and kudos from historical, strong women. His autumn 2019 collection developed from his fascination with the Italian aristocrat, Principessa Orietta Pogson Doria Pamphilj, who had inherited a 1,000-room Roman Palazzo after the arrest of her antifascist father. His spring 2020 collection was inspired by the Italian silent-film-actor-turned-photographer-and-political-activist Tina Modotti (1896-1942) and in spring 2020 it was the turn of opera singer Maria Callas (1923-1977).
Image: ERDEM Spring Summer 2024 Show - Look 39. courtesy ERDEM.
Erdem’s fascination with Debo came via his interest in her aunt, Adele Astaire, sister of Fred and wife of Lord Charles Cavendish which resulted in his 2018 spring collection. Subsequently Erdem spent hours in the Chatsworth archives with Susie Stokoe, head of textiles examining not only Debo’s clothes and jewellery, but bed linen and curtain textiles. “I had long been fascinated by her story and found the archives at Chatsworth to be endlessly inspiring,” he explained, “There was always this seed that I was going to come back to create a collection about Debo…. In the process of creating it, it truly became an imaginary conversation between me and a muse I’d never met. What you see in the exhibition ‘Imaginary Conversations,’ is not an exact portrait of someone, but someone through a lens. …..I’m constantly looking for narratives that allow me to explore something forensically, but never has there been an opportunity to actually go to the muse’s home and create an exhibit with her objects.”
Image: Installation view of Imaginary Conversations: An ERDEM collection inspired by Duchess Deborah at Chatsworth, 2024, courtesy Chatsworth House Trust.
Debo chatelaine of Chatsworth until her death aged 94 in 2014, was certainly an extraordinary women, who had her very own personal glamorous style that sat alongside her passion for chickens, Elvis and a jewellery collection that focussed on a love of insects, especially portrayed in huge brooches. Erdem Moralioğlu, has translated his ’conversation,’ with a variety of clothes, the majority being for cocktail occasions and largely decorated with embroidered bugs, chintz roses and screen printed chickens. Apparently Debo’s philosophy of make-do-and-mend inspired Erdem to create his collection piecing together the old and the new. He uses historic chintz curtains from the textiles collection with his own new prints, to dress windows and frames of the Leicester bedroom.
Image: Installation view of Imaginary Conversations: An ERDEM collection inspired by Duchess Deborah at Chatsworth, 2024, courtesy Chatsworth House Trust.
There is a tweed suit with a tattered skirt and ragged cuffs apparently pecked away by hens. Many of the garments have this frayed hem aesthetic. The shapes are mostly 50s feel tight bodiced tops with wide floor length skirts, although there are a few baggier shapes. Chintz roses sprawl over skirts, jackets, and quilted full length jerkins, the latter combined with Barbour coats. The chintz is not reimagined in a particularly new way. There are several coats made of ‘curtain fabric,’ in vibrant blues and acid yellows with elaborate fringes and matching handbags. Clothes are extensively encrusted with embroidery, much of it flamboyant, though there is some fine black embroidery of flowers and insects. A white net ball dress, draped with chintz fabric has large scale floral hand embroidery by the Duchess’s granddaughters Cecily Lasnet.
Installation view of Imaginary Conversations: An ERDEM collection inspired by Duchess Deborah at Chatsworth, 2024, courtesy Chatsworth House Trust.
The clothes are displayed in clusters in the house’s Regency Guest Bedrooms, alongside objects that belonged to the late Duchess, such as a small clutch bag in the shape of a hen, her Elvis slippers and a pair of acid yellow tasselled shoes, whose colour is picked up in the embroidery of a coat. In the theatrically darkened Alcove Bedroom is a selection of the Duchess’s bejewelled insect brooches (of which she bought and was gifted around 50 during her lifetime.) These were the inspiration for the beaded and embroidered bugs crawling up Erdem’s black cocktail dress. Debo’s brooches, which she often wore in groups, include exquisite art nouveau insect brooches, Erdem’s translations, also based on etymological books in the Chatsworth Library, are clunky and heavy handed. Whilst the Duchess pinned on her brooches in fine swathes, Erdem’s look plonked on.
Image: ERDEM Spring Summer 2024 Show - Look 7. Image courtesy of ERDEM.
The show is intended to demonstrate the process of developing a runway collection and at the end is a more interesting room of sketches, fabric samples, toiles and models, interspersed with photographs of the Duchess. It should be an explanation of the design process, but lacks real interpretation. The show lacks any significant intellectual framework or rigour and feels like a marketing opportunity for both designer and location. The whole feels less rigorous than a graduate show. Spending time in a collection such as Chatsworth must be immensely rewarding, but the results here are pretty obvious and mundane. Chatsworth however is as beautiful and sumptuous as ever.
Text by Corinne Julius
Erdem: Imaginary Conversations is on show at Chatsworth House until 20 October 2024.
Find out more and plan your visit:
www.chatsworth.org/events/erdem-imaginary-conversations
Erdem Moralioğlu, is no stranger to taking inspiration and kudos from historical, strong women. His autumn 2019 collection developed from his fascination with the Italian aristocrat, Principessa Orietta Pogson Doria Pamphilj, who had inherited a 1,000-room Roman Palazzo after the arrest of her antifascist father. His spring 2020 collection was inspired by the Italian silent-film-actor-turned-photographer-and-political-activist Tina Modotti (1896-1942) and in spring 2020 it was the turn of opera singer Maria Callas (1923-1977).
Erdem’s fascination with Debo came via his interest in her aunt, Adele Astaire, sister of Fred and wife of Lord Charles Cavendish which resulted in his 2018 spring collection. Subsequently Erdem spent hours in the Chatsworth archives with Susie Stokoe, head of textiles examining not only Debo’s clothes and jewellery, but bed linen and curtain textiles. “I had long been fascinated by her story and found the archives at Chatsworth to be endlessly inspiring,” he explained, “There was always this seed that I was going to come back to create a collection about Debo…. In the process of creating it, it truly became an imaginary conversation between me and a muse I’d never met. What you see in the exhibition ‘Imaginary Conversations,’ is not an exact portrait of someone, but someone through a lens. …..I’m constantly looking for narratives that allow me to explore something forensically, but never has there been an opportunity to actually go to the muse’s home and create an exhibit with her objects.”
Debo chatelaine of Chatsworth until her death aged 94 in 2014, was certainly an extraordinary women, who had her very own personal glamorous style that sat alongside her passion for chickens, Elvis and a jewellery collection that focussed on a love of insects, especially portrayed in huge brooches. Erdem Moralioğlu, has translated his ’conversation,’ with a variety of clothes, the majority being for cocktail occasions and largely decorated with embroidered bugs, chintz roses and screen printed chickens. Apparently Debo’s philosophy of make-do-and-mend inspired Erdem to create his collection piecing together the old and the new. He uses historic chintz curtains from the textiles collection with his own new prints, to dress windows and frames of the Leicester bedroom.
There is a tweed suit with a tattered skirt and ragged cuffs apparently pecked away by hens. Many of the garments have this frayed hem aesthetic. The shapes are mostly 50s feel tight bodiced tops with wide floor length skirts, although there are a few baggier shapes. Chintz roses sprawl over skirts, jackets, and quilted full length jerkins, the latter combined with Barbour coats. The chintz is not reimagined in a particularly new way. There are several coats made of ‘curtain fabric,’ in vibrant blues and acid yellows with elaborate fringes and matching handbags. Clothes are extensively encrusted with embroidery, much of it flamboyant, though there is some fine black embroidery of flowers and insects. A white net ball dress, draped with chintz fabric has large scale floral hand embroidery by the Duchess’s granddaughters Cecily Lasnet.
The clothes are displayed in clusters in the house’s Regency Guest Bedrooms, alongside objects that belonged to the late Duchess, such as a small clutch bag in the shape of a hen, her Elvis slippers and a pair of acid yellow tasselled shoes, whose colour is picked up in the embroidery of a coat. In the theatrically darkened Alcove Bedroom is a selection of the Duchess’s bejewelled insect brooches (of which she bought and was gifted around 50 during her lifetime.) These were the inspiration for the beaded and embroidered bugs crawling up Erdem’s black cocktail dress. Debo’s brooches, which she often wore in groups, include exquisite art nouveau insect brooches, Erdem’s translations, also based on etymological books in the Chatsworth Library, are clunky and heavy handed. Whilst the Duchess pinned on her brooches in fine swathes, Erdem’s look plonked on.
The show is intended to demonstrate the process of developing a runway collection and at the end is a more interesting room of sketches, fabric samples, toiles and models, interspersed with photographs of the Duchess. It should be an explanation of the design process, but lacks real interpretation. The show lacks any significant intellectual framework or rigour and feels like a marketing opportunity for both designer and location. The whole feels less rigorous than a graduate show. Spending time in a collection such as Chatsworth must be immensely rewarding, but the results here are pretty obvious and mundane. Chatsworth however is as beautiful and sumptuous as ever.
Text by Corinne Julius
Erdem: Imaginary Conversations is on show at Chatsworth House until 20 October 2024.
Find out more and plan your visit:
www.chatsworth.org/events/erdem-imaginary-conversations