LUEDER’s Albedo SS25
Initiating an apocalyptic pilgrimage from within the underground concrete container of 180 The Strand, LUEDER unfurled its SS 25 collection exploring the medieval purification stage of the Magnum Opus, Albedo. This season sees the brand delve into chemical transformations with its grime and gritty colour palette, showcasing a spiritual enlightenment borne of the alchemical process washing away the impurities, casting a cleansing to ‘formless chaos’.
As the BFC’s NEWGEN space returns home to celebrate 40 years of London Fashion Week, LUEDER’s waiting guests are bathed in a haunting vermillion light that continues the reddening stage of her preceding show in Berlin, Rubedo. At once, harsh lights flood, and Marie Lueder’s dystopian portal commenced. Paneled denim, dismantled jersey, heavy medieval cloak-style hoods and ribbed knitwear embellished with dual zips. With bleached-out features and gaunt cheekbones, showed eyes and menacing joker-like smiles, Sinnott’s makeup mirrored the collection’s interplay of charm and cult. Tight braids, once considered to ward off evil, couple with hand-dyed fabrics crafted with 60% less water, speaking to a blend of archaic mysticism and modern sustainability. Dismantled leather, collars crawling and exploding from the neck, slouchy shoulders all encumber LUEDER’s army as they storm past in high socks and Puma sneakers that surge back to the brand’s sportswear framework.
Words By: Abigail Scarlett
Images Courtesy of Lueder // Press: We Are Village
As seen with LUEDER before, Albedo was nothing short of an interactive performance piece wielded to a commercial setting as the designer looks for Chinese and North American buyers. Feeding their way across the catwalk, a masked creature portraying the jester with abstract and erratic movement. Crafted by Felix Reimann, the reflective metallic mask presents a shielding from hostility and of vulnerability, seemingly ritualistic with distant reminiscence of medieval plague masks, enhancing the eerie medicinal undertones. Simultaneously, another performer ambles with nowhere to go, a heavy rusting chain weighting his frame, burdening his plight. The sustained banging of a spade theatrically impaled with corroding nails against the floor like church bells, signaling an uneasy doomsday.
Leaning heavily into the alchemical influences, LUEDER’s LFW debut saw fabrics brandished with natural pigmentations from oxidised brass and steel amulets created by Thomas P. Grogan, whilst printmaker Benjamin Grund produced battle-scarred camouflage motifs across mesh drapings in greasy hues of iodine reds and rusting coppers. Underscoring the overarching themes of corrosion, LUEDER’s distressed blurring across calf-length skirts and tank tops vividly explores the process of burning woods and decaying metals. Smokey greys and faded browns form the foundations of the collection, rich with sulphur yellow details offset by thick rubber drinks holders and knotted sling satchels.
Inundated with references of decay, Marie Lueder has engineered a pivotal collection emphasising the ugly rooted in experience and process, fundamental in the crusade for emotional change and intimate enlightenment.
