Tracey Neuls on Display | Walking the Catwalk with Niamh McGovern and Kai Ghattaura + Fin Forsyth
London Fashion Week unfolded across five consecutive days this September, running from Thursday the 17th to Monday the 21st, a long weekend thick with fashion, glamour, and symbiosis. Tracey Neuls threw open her archive this year, joining forces with a clutch of emerging new talent who sent our footwear down the runway, pieces plucked from seasons past alongside our most recent collections, reimagined in new, exciting, and inventive ways that display both Tracey Neuls’ enduring spirit of collaboration and of a legacy built as a timeless footwear designer. The alliance of old and new proved once again that the designs of seasons past don't simply expire when the next autumn or spring comes around, they evolve with the times, waiting for a new designer to reinvent both themselves and the shoe within their contemporary zeitgeist.
The Big Top heel as seen on the runway.
Working with NMCG, a London-and-Dublin-based, Irish-born brand founded by Niamh McGovern, Tracey’s work walked the raw, pitted concrete floor beneath models dressed in black draping, tied into cream corsets, and set against gorgeous, gliding sheer dresses that featured graphic prints across the front. The whole scene was backgrounded by a large LED screen which played a four minute, montage-esque reel of Niamh’s gorgeous archives and previous shows, interspersed with imagery of her home in Meath, Ireland, all overlaid with violin music composed by friend and collaborator Conor Heaphy, that interwove with Ethel Cain’s gorgeous ballad ‘Sun Bleached Flies,’ which orchestrated the whole affair. The models sported the archival Big Top heel, our recent Jones boots, and the Mary Jane and Pam wedge shoes as they walked towards the camera and the front of the show, then back towards the screen and a pleated, long, marble-white curtain, settling there into an ordered processional row for the audience’s second, steadier glance at the garments that they had watched flow up and down the runway. The whole scene was brightly lit, the models remaining stern and composed, cheekbones high, jaws razor-sharp, and eyes narrowed into darting, unwavering gazes, yet the music and the gorgeous, almost emotional attention to detail in the garments gave it a meditative, ruminative feel, a feel that was a pleasure to experience and be a part of.
Our Jones boot sits gorgeously below a flurry of black tassels.
Behind the scenes look at our Geek OG Petal Parchment and reinterpreted Punk Black, photographed by our very own Elena Efthymiou.
Secondly, we had the pleasure of featuring in “Glister,” a surprise, East London-set off-schedule runway show staged in an empty warehouse, helmed by CSM graduates and romantic partners Kai Ghattaura and Fin Forsyth. Here we saw an utterly unique reinvention of our shoes, a whole different side of them amidst the urban yet youthful malaise of Bethnal Green’s industrial quarter, caught mid-regeneration. A cardboard house sat at the back of the space, designed by artist Corbin Shaw and constructed by no2without1, equipped with a pastiche front fence, three-feet tall door, and even a cardboard-fox posed at its side, the whole structure set in a mundanity of creams, light browns, off-whites, and strands of hay. Dreamcatchers hung from the ceiling, warding the masked and glitter-bound models from any ill omen, whilst rugs plastered the floor, and any naked sections were cast in the warehouse’s very own bruise-purple, oozing concrete, a surface which held the casted, pitch-black shadows of eager viewers seated on primary-school-style benches lining each side of the runway. Our very own Elena got a sneak peek into the interior of the show while it was being set up, catching a test-run and watching the models move through a slightly more relaxed, yet still unyielding array of postures and expressions. The show itself was huge, but to witness it before the bustle and unending photography, the warehouse took on an almost calm, noisy silence, as the practice runway flew by and props were adjusted and lighting fixed, fitted, and lit to the exact perfect tones. The models wore a range of our newest collection, as seen above is our Geek Petal and Punk, alongside our Pam and Mary Jane Wedge shoes, the Manny Lime, and even an alluring new Geek collaboration you will shortly find in our Marylebone store and on our website. This show really felt like a moment, and the fact our footwear staked its claim within these warehouse walls amidst such unique experimentation, was a joy to behold.
Our Pam Wedge shoe as seen during “Glister.”
We want to thank both NMCG and Kai Ghattaura and Fin Forsyth. It is important, and motivating, to see young brands sharing and collaborating with more established projects, a good sign for the future that contemporary design still harbours an edge, a timelessness, and a desire not just to establish itself as a designer brand, but to thrive. From the pitted concrete and violin strings of Niamh McGovern to the cardboard fox and dreamcatchers of “Glister,” this September proved that Tracey Neuls’ footwear isn’t just worn, but interpreted, then reinterpreted, and re-storied, made new and different in the hands of emerging, bold new designers. Two shows, two completely different universes, but both with admired, unique, and beautiful artistry. London Fashion Week may have closed its doors on Monday, but you must always watch closely for what comes next.
Written by Jason Cassar for Tracey Neuls Online.