The Autumn Winter 2025 'Dark Romance' collection was inspired by Victorian mourning etiquette, invoking ritual, reflection and remembrance alongside knowingness, power and confidence. The collection features strong silhouettes, restrained but luxurious detailing, and is drenched in deep, dark, sensual colours.

Black mourning attire was designed to suppress women. Unlike their unmarried virginal sisters, widows were believed to be a threat to the patriarchal social order because they had sexual experience, and could own their own property. Paradoxically it began to have the opposite effect and many believe fashion’s enduring passion for black stems from this era. The allure of widow’s black dominates the deep mourning phase, and is explored throughout this Dark Romance collection in deep, rich and true black.

The second mourning phase where more lustrous fabric and elaborative ornamentation was allowed, is interpreted in the collection through restrained but seductive detailing on shoulders, sleeves and arms, from hand-ruched silk tulle, mother of pearl buttons and rich velvet. The final stage of mourning where muted colours mark the transition to regular attire sees grey, burgundy and brown hues enter the collection, and looser chunkier knits create more relaxed silhouettes.

New styles include Dowager, inspired by the strong shoulder silhouettes of the 1800s mourning widow. Subversive rather than submissive, the effect is distinctly powerful and chic. The knit technique of this detail pushes the innovation boundary to create empowering peaks on each shoulder, striking yet utterly soft they are supported by featherweight tulle pods inside. The sleeve is hourglass shape for added elegance, while the body is ultra simple and slender to lend a sleek modern feel.

The Maude is another new style for Autumn Winter 2025. The cardigan has a really different silhouette and epitomises the inspiration of the season. Dropped shoulders lead to a balloon sleeve which cinches back in at the wrist. Inspired by the cascading layers of 1800s dresses, the softest pure silk tulle is gathered at the top of the bulbous sleeve adding a whisper of hazy texture and movement.

The Quintessential sweater is another key style, taking mourning jewellery as inspiration where lockets were engraved with initials such as IMO (in memory of). Here, with the lightest of pure silk tulle and the softest silk/viscose velvet, this central emblem is reinterpreted at scale in this unisex sweatshirt shape with exposed raw edge cuffs, collar and hem. 

Throughout gothic romance the tangled thorny rose is shorthand for the bittersweet nature of love and loss. The new Briar sweater interprets this motif with an incredibly technically challenging knit tubular cashmere appliqué, a thorned stem which snakes its way around the sweater. At the top a handmade black rose corsage of silk chiffon, silk mesh and cotton mesh tulle which sits on a removable brooch pin for ease of style, a flourish befitting a queen of mourning. These new styles build on Sphere One’s 'Black Tie' focus over recent seasons, combining elegance with drama, fluidity and textural interest for refined and infinitely comfortable dress up occasions.

“I’ve been fascinated by mourning jewellery for some time,” explains Lucy. “Sentimental souvenirs of the deceased expressed so romantically – locks of hair intertwined in jewellery, motifs like the weeping willow pining for a lost dear one, and mottoes of eternal love and loss. Revisiting the MET exhibition Death Becomes Her informed a new focus on dropped and puffed shoulders and a darkly romantic feeling started to take shape in the collection. Rituals of remembrance followed through naturally to our AW25 presentation at Paris Fashion Week. We made tiered wooden boxes filled with sand to hold dozens of slender beeswax candles, which flickered gently to Arvo Part’s Da Pacem Domine playing in the background.”

Throughout the campaign shoot for the Dark Romance collection, antiquity is conveyed, and ritual is embodied through materials repetitively used, such as the patina of handled brass and the curve of each step of an oft-trodden stone staircase. Serenity and stillness is conveyed through the Chiaroscuro of light falling from high windows, inspired by Dutch Master portraits, a whisper of incense smoke, and the personal ritual of candle lighting.

~ PHOTOSHOOT CREDITS ~

 Photography: Suzie Howell

Assistant: Charlotte Hartley

Video: Tilly Wace

Styling & Art Direction: Ruth Higginbotham

Hair & Make Up: Eoin Whelan

Casting: Becky @ Established Models

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