Looking back at the recent London Fashion Week, let’s take a look at one of the collections that is lesser-known, but nevertheless caught the eye of many: Empress by Joanna Day.
Interpretting the Empress
Empresses and other region-leading female figures from history have often been overshadowed by their male counterparts – except maybe Cleopatra, of course. That said, more and more types of media are starting to draw on the power and opulence of these figures, making movies, TV shows, and even online games that highlight these lesser-known figures in more detail. Cleopatra alone has inspired an entire franchise of online slots, with games like Cleopatra Gold, Cleopatra Hyper Hits, and Cleopatra Plus. Elsewhere, many games set in Asia feature empress figures, rather than simply the emperors from the history books.
Whether the media is found online or on our TV screens, empresses are often depicted to have a balance between stereotypically feminine softness and a strong sense of power. So, aesthetics inspired by the empress often expresses themes of softness, without compromising on a sense of strength. With this in mind, fashion collections looking to capture the essence of the empress tend to play with flowing silhouettes with more structured or even tailored elements, or lighter fabrics with bolder, more powerful detailing.
New Collection from Joanna Day
Joanna Day is considered a ‘local’ designer by many, particularly compared to the bigger names you tend to hear of appearing at London fashion week. The designer runs the Byzantium Boutique in Crowthorne, a village in Berkshire, England. The boutique is known for being a sustainable fashion outlet, whose ethos is to bring the style of luxury design to the high street. Joanna Day’s flagship store has a carefully curated selection of ready to wear, couture, embellished, and vintage pieces for all shapes and sizes.
The collection shown at September’s London fashion week, titled Empress, was created to pay tribute to those women who have the ability to exude both power and softness by taking inspirations of classical design forms and signals of royal strength, all with a modern twist. This meant doing away with structured elements like corsets and under-skirt cages, which allowed the collection to flow freely down the runway. It was Joanna Day’s aim to create a collection that is empowering, as well as a moving, breathing piece of beauty. And it certainly read this way in its curation and movement.
Other Collections Taking Inspiration from Powerful Women
Perhaps one of the most recent examples of collections that draw from similar inspirations is Bora Aksu’s reveal from February’s London fashion week. The collection by the Turkish designer took inspiration from – some even said paid tribute to – the famous Empress Sisi of Austria. Uniquely, Bora Aksu’s collection played on the dualities within the empress’ own life, particularly that of sadness and beauty. The Austrian empire was portrayed with power, with structured jackets and tailored overcoats, whilst the opulence was accentuated with opera gloves on many outfits. This was paired with lots of lace, frills, veils, and tulle to inject softer elements into the largely monochromatic collection.
Similar themes could be seen at the Spring/Summer 2025 Paris fashion week, this time highlighting the power and independence of the modern woman. Again, opera gloves made several appearances, seemingly becoming an icon of both power and elegance. However, Louise Trotter’s techniques kind of turn the norm on its head. Instead, it was structured items that had a bit of a makeover, creating interesting silhouettes with buttonless jackets, unstructured blouses with wide sleeves, and floaty cropped trousers.
As you can see, the juxtaposition of power and softness can be seen in various different collections from recent years. Whether techniques are used to soften powerful structured elements or to empower traditionally feminine, floaty materials, the duality of the two can ooze powerful elegance on the runway.
##
