Fashion designer Harikrishnan Keezhathil Surendran Pillai, who has created viral latex outfits for celebrities like Sam Smith, doubled down on more wearable pieces for his runway debut during London Fashion Week.
He included a simple white shirt with curved sleeves, crinkled shirts with exaggerated shoulders, and a blazer in shimmering gold fabric, all of which would make sense in a Luc Besson sci-fi production.
The designer presented these ideas alongside a sweaty, bouncy dance fest. Performers put on an engaging choreographed set while wearing dramatic latex bodysuits, with one outlier dressed in a well-cut, cropped blazer.
The performance had an erotic frisson, given the huge amount of sweat generated between the latex and the dancers’ skin. Pillai confessed that he turned off the air conditioning at the venue on purpose.
To wit: Videos of the sweaty performance quickly went viral on social media. It’s a formula that the brand has been relying on for a few seasons. But the latex spectacle inevitability overshadowed the designer’s intention to dial up the commercial viability and showcase “a lot of pieces that you can actually wear.”
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