David Koma. Pre-Fall 2025
I have always been a James Bond fan, being that tailend of the late Sean Connery finishing with playing the character, through to his comeback as James Bond in "Never Say Never Again" (1983), which showed up as an absolute reflection of 1980s hedonic overtures, with the beautiful Barbara Carrera portraying the hypersexual and violent "Fatima Blush", in my opinion, as one of the most striking mythos of psychopathy in Bond Femme Fatale lore. Of course, it must also be noted all of the late Roger Moore and his James Bond movies throughout the 80s with the bevvies of Femme Fatales in tow, stopping after the short run of Pierce Brosnan's take on Bond, in which he did a very good job. But, not bothering with Daniel Craig's interpretation of the infamous English spy. James Bond is, and will always be a 1960s,1970s and 1980s pop culture icon, it doesn't really work within the currently confused 21st Century.
David Koma, the UK fashion designer, who has as an eternal love affair with the epicurean of the last Forty years, which as the last remnants of counterculture, that being the hedonism of the 1970s. Which ceased at the start of the 1990s, when Generation X decided to embrace 21st century confusion, and began to go backwards into a odd version of 1950s sensibilities, and into, and yes as mentioned numerous times, mortgages and DVD players, and now Netflix. So, it is a no wonder that for his Pre-Fall 2025 collection, Koma has evoked the Bond Femme Fatale as an inspiration for his latest styles.
Juggling between his newer appointed position as creative director for Blumarine, with a debut show coming up very soon for Milan Fashion Week, and the David Koma signature label. Admiringly ensuring that his own styliations remain a presendance, at least chronologically before the up and coming Blumarine showing. Koma has upped the ante of drawing in and reflecting the intensity of the Bond villainess, in all of her ruthlessness, lacking empathy and sexually driven, insatiable behaviour, that we, without admitting, admire her resolved detachment. Despite the fact, she is usually killed by Bond at some point in that fictional melodrama.
Koma's Pre-Fall very much holds an edge, in its ruthless carnality, as an fervent honesty that the 1970s and 1980s held in regard, that being sex and power ala the James Bond ethos. The styles have, as you would expect, a sharpened aesthetic, it is cocktails and cyanide, sex and death. While dancing on that edge, the exciting dilemma that the mythical Femme Fatale, over the course of the evening, may indeed be my demise. Sleekly defined, with its 70s modernism of silks, sequins, leather and an abundance of faux fur.
As Koma aptly described his latest collection to be a representation of the "...confident, empowering, and dangerous" woman, his lookbook certainly offers that uncompromising decree. So, stare into her cold eyes, whilst complimenting her outfit, style and presence. Yet, when the evening draws to an end, she may not even care what you think.
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(A.Glass 2025)
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