London Fashion Label 16Arlington Brings Extravagance Glamour And A Hint Of Fetish With Their Latest Collection

Marco Capaldo and Kikka Cavenati are the duo behind London-based fashion label, 16Arlington.

Established in 2017, their brand radiates glamour, real glamour. I mean Jean Harlow-type glamour that you associate with Hollywood starlets, but there is a cool London take on it.

There's feathers, there's sequins, silk, leather and crystals. What more could you want? And these adorn killer silhouettes including strapless figure-hugging numbers to halterneck minis and one-shouldered midis. It's maximalism at its best.

Brought right up to date though, there's more to the line, look closely and there's a collective harmony is the disharmonies - femininity and masculinity (see tailored blazers), minimalism and maximalism, made up sexiness and effortless style. It's not strictly PG either, to top it off there's also a hint of the fetish to mix is up. Hot.

And the appeal is real, so much so they got their very own Hollywooder, Lena Dunham to walk in their Spring/Summer 2020 catwalk at London Fashion Week (it was Dunham's debut appearance as a runway model). It's also seen them bag leading stockists from Bergdorf Goodman and Kirna Zabete to Selfridges, Moda Operandi, Luisa via Roma and Lane Crawford all lusting after their alluring line. So I guess all there's left to do is, just add a red carpet.

Felicity Carter: What was your first memory of fashion or style?

We always talk about how we were both made very aware of fashion thanks to our mothers.

Even though neither of them directly worked in fashion they always had a real interest and eye for clothing. We often find ourselves referencing old photo albums and asking them to dig out old pieces that we spot in them.

Kikka: My mother used to model in her 20s and was often paid with clothing. She would choose really unusual special pieces that she wouldn't normally buy so I remember often playing with these pieces. Growing up I always wanted her to have high heels but she was always into very masculine androgynous tailoring and footwear so I would style these beautiful dresses with manly lace ups and big blazers. That real contrast is something I still implement when designing.

FC: How, when, why did you get into the industry?

We both studied womenswear at University which is where we met. I suppose that was a real first formal introduction to the industry. Following our graduate collection we built some wonderful relationships with stylist, we both carried out internships for different design houses but really felt the urge to work together something together which is when we started working on 16Arlington. 

It was through a stylist that we were introduced to Lauren Santo Domingo, she wore one of our pieces which led to Moda being one of our first stockists.

FC: How would you sum up the aesthetic?

Marco and I have a real love and appreciation for all things beautiful. I think that's the real starting point of our aesthetic is to create something beautiful and empowering. 16Arlington is a balance of two extremes, masculinity versus femininity, minimalism versus maximalism, a combination of our British/Italian heritage which creates this beautiful juxtaposition when put into a melting pot of excessive sexy Italian glamour and London laid-back effortless cool and touch of fetish.

FC: What is luxury to you?

For us luxury is something that takes form in an object of desire. Something that makes your heart skip a beat and makes you standstill, observe, admire and revel in its beauty.

FC: Who is your customer?

We never identify our customer with any restrictions. We don't put an age group or occupation on our client. For us she is a woman who uses clothing to amplify the beauty that's already there. We've been really lucky to work with such a variety of inspirational women since starting the brand all of who we feel represent our customer. They are all so different and unique but all share this common thread that they are changing the world in a positive way, making it a much more beautiful place.

FC: What does each of you bring to the brand?

At the start of a journey I think that we both bought something quite individual aesthetically to each collection however after working with each other and now on our fifth season our aesthetic's have really synced and work at such parallels that we don't necessarily notice who brings a specific idea or detail to the table. I think the real obvious thing that is still present is the male and female eye, Kikka is very much aware of how woman are going to feel in the clothing we create. Marco has a tendency to push thigh splits a little too high.

FC: What are the cornerstones of your company?

Being a young brand we've always been very involved in every aspect of the company from the get go which has resulted in us learning so much because the reality of setting up a brand is that there is so much more to it than just designing a collection every season. We've always taken a very hands-on approach and are still involved in every tiny aspect of the brand which certainly has its disadvantages but also allows us to be very aware of how the brand is running and progressing. This combined with a very small dedicated team has allowed us to get to this point. One of our biggest blessings has been having each other thought the to constantly form a rational decision based on two opinions rather than one and that something that is both very much present in both the business, day-to-day running of the brand, and ultimately the collections themselves.

FC: Which was the first-ever piece that you designed and how did it come about?

That's a really hard question, we created these feather coats very early on and it was really about playing with the proportions of the base of the coats. We created these oversized cocoon like shaped coats to make you look like a pin dropped into a ball of feathers. Another really memorable creation were the custom looks we created for Jourdan Dunn and Edie Campbell for the 2018 British fashion awards. These two looks were so different but really represented the balance of extremes. Jourdan wore a strapless, fitted, transparent lace sequin gown adorned in feathers which had a three meter long train and Edie wore a really polished tailored suit in a ice blue iridescent lame with oversized masculine satin lapels.

FC: What is on your current mood board?

Right now it's quite difficult to channel creative inspiration when surrounded by such sadness however there are moments where inspiration does kick in and creates a respite and also acts as a small form of escapism. The mood and ideas are changing quite rapidly at the moment and the adjustment from working under extreme pressure and tight deadlines to having more time to develop is something you think would only benefit the process but in fact the adjustment and uncertainty is occupying a lot of the time.

FC: Tell us about the process from sketch to production...

The process from sketch to production is a really interesting one because every garment comes about in a different way. Sometimes there is a very clear visual idea that we detail in great depth in a sketch on paper and other times it's something that comes to life draped on the body. Sometimes something that is made with a certain direction transforms into something when the styling inspires it to go in a new direction. The process of developing a collection really is something that changes right up until the morning of the show. Once the collection has been shown it travels for sales and is looked at by our stockists. We often develop exclusive pieces with our buyers and it's from the sales campaign that we really start to understand how the collection will translate commercially. After sales we really spend a lot of time fine-tuning the garments in production fits. Here we tweak hemlines waistlines keyholes lower split ect. Lots of things work beautifully editorially or in a show format when you're creating a fantasy but don't necessarily translate into the real world. It's important to us that we keep the clothing as close to the dream as possible but ensure women can feel and confident great wearing it.

FC: How would you like to see your label evolve?

We've been so lucky to work with such incredible stockists worldwide and we hope to keep growing our distribution in a very organic way. For us the aim has never been to over distribute the collection but instead to keep it very special and available in really beautiful spaces. We want to continue to build long-standing relationships with all our retail partners. We recently launched a bag collection exclusively with Net-a-Porter and we hope to explore more categories in the future as the brand grows into what we hope will be global.

Shop the label on their website and at leading stores globally.