At the heart of POET-LAB’s return to London Fashion Week this year is memory. Presenting their SS27 collection ‘REMEMBER’, POET-LAB’s designs ask viewers to meditate on the way in which memory can be an aid in the fight against conformity. 

Inspired by the Albanian heritage of the collection’s muse Elton Ilirjani, Ilirjani’s experience growing up in the country sparked the creative team’s exploration of how memory relates to identity, with Ilirjani’s appearing at the heart of the presentation.   

The collection’s distinct visual language draws on the legacy of Albania’s brutalist architecture. The jagged forms, concrete materials and metallic splashes characteristic of industrial structures become genderless shapes, sculptural tailoring and oversized silhouettes.

‘REMEMBER’ functions as a clear continuation of POET-LAB’s typical approach to balancing structure with fluidity. Allowing traces of construction to peak through in each garment alongside traditionally purposeful elements such as voluminous tailoring create a balanced yet dramatic effect which the collection’s intentional pairing-back of colour emphasises. 

Creative Director Giuseppe Iaciofano’s belief that personal history can become inextricably intertwined with clothing drew him to Ilirjani as a muse and memory as a concept for this collection. His own experiences battling cancer and discrimination have also been a foundational influence on the label’s belief in fashion as a form of unrestrained self-expression. 

In ‘REMEMBER’, this ethos takes the form of pieces which celebrate memory without allowing themselves to be consumed by it. ‘REMEMBER’s essence can be distilled in Iaciofano’s claim that “Memory is the only luxury that cannot be replicated. And the freedom to remember is the freedom to remain yourself.”

Images: Marcus Hartelt