For the Erdem Pre-Fall 2018 collection, the lookbook was captured at Kyoto Garden in Holland Park in London by fashion photographer Robi Rodriguez with models Kiko Arai, Michelle Gutknecht, and Runa Neuwirth.

They were shot amid the rocks and standing on the bridge over the pond. This gave the designer the ideal location to conjure up the spirit of his twin themes of the season. “I’d been thinking about Laura Ashley and Japanese artist Hokusai,” he said. “There was an exhibition about Hokusai at the British Museum recently, and then there is something I love about Laura Ashley.”

Ashley’s influence with the high-waisted bodices, the English peasant-y flower prints, the patchwork and quilting—perfectly connects him with the bucolic-escapist Victoriana phase of the early ’70s. The collection featured circle silhouettes and romantic ruffles that infuse the collection with femininity. On the other hand, there are suits and separates with confident cuts and tiny floral prints that kept the balance in the collection.

In the tiny, formal flower prints, the chrysanthemum cloque fabric, the hint of kimono sashes, and the embroideries of birds flying over the hem of a trenchcoat. Keeping on with the slightly ’40s silhouettes, with their draped satin shoulder lines or sequined puffed sleeves and the circle-skirted ’50s silhouettes, was another wise move.