John Alexander Skelton Spring 2027: Keeping the Romance Alive

by · WWD
John Alexander Skelton Spring 2027 Ready-to-WearCourtesy of John Alexander Skelton

Charli XCX and John Alexander Skelton might not seem to have much in common. But one couldn’t help but hum the tune of “Everything is Romantic” when looking through the deft yesteryear flair of creased silk damasks and jaunty floral block prints from the designer’s latest collection.

Enamored with the staid old townhouses in the London neighborhood of Spitalfields, this season Skelton found inspiration in the homes’ 18th-century residents: the Huguenot silk weaving families. French Protestants who fled to England amid religious persecution, these families spun, wove, and dyed silk from their homes, ultimately shaping British textile production and design.

Skelton was particularly drawn to Huguenot Anna Maria Garthwaite, one of the few prolific female silk designers of the time.

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“Before her, a lot of floral patterns would look exactly like a plant or an herb in real life,” he explained. “She was the first person to form patterns from flowers, to take naturalistic elements from them and then make up the rest of it.”

In homage, Skelton reworked her archived original designs, imbuing creamy jacquards and damasks in rich scarlet and navy with a bit of Garthwaite’s spirit.

She’s a fitting muse this season, considering that this collection had Skelton’s largest womenswear offering yet, thanks to popular demand.

“Over the last two years we’d have shops that would increasingly buy the smaller sizes of my menswear for women, and we started to get approached by a lot more of the womenswear-only shops,” said Skelton. “This season, it just felt right to add in a little bit more. I wanted all the women’s pieces to be really considered.”

With elegantly rumpled skirts and ever-so-slightly more tailored shirting, that consideration — of what Skelton’s female customers want to wear — is felt. And what’s more romantic than that?