“EMMA BLYTHE releases “POSSESSIONS”: a new collection and campaign lm directed by MALTHUS and starring DAMSEL ELYSIUM”.

The designer’s debut womenswear collection ‘Possessions’ is a continuation of the line of research that began with Emma Blythe’s ‘Fashioning Acts of Masculinity’ upon graduating from the Royal College of Art in London in 2021.

After two capsule collections that focused on upcycled menswear, Emma Blythe’s latest collection asks her audience to work against learned male behaviours in order to utilise fashion as a method to disentangle the male experience from the traditional material culture we have been wrapped up in for so long. Presented within a conceptual film, ‘POSSESSIONS’ hypothesises the suggested trajectory- but is it a peaceful one? Are these painful behaviours Blythe mentions too deeply connected to the materials used?

With references to historical dress, vintage horror, and carefully reimagined and mended vintage and antique materials, Emma Blythe’s ‘Possessions’ shows us the early stages of this possible future through hand-crafted demi-couture and one-of-a-kind designer staples.

“The main concept was this feeling of past pain that’s been worked through and healed over, but not quite forgotten. This feeling of hard-won hope” Emma writes. "I am imagining this new womenswear muse within a new future context where she is in the process of disentangling herself from the painful history of the garments she now claims as her own".

This collection requires more than one viewing, for with each closer look, further detail and careful design are revealed. Playing with structure, texture, and unexpected reimaginings of well-known items, this collection leads us down an exciting- although somewhat dark- path that you’ll want to follow.

The campaign lm, directed and scored by artist MALTHUS draws on vintage horror tropes to create a surreal, insular world. Carried by musician and performer Damsel Elysium, the project revisits the use of horror tropes within a fashion space.

Premiered in London alongside the designers’ collection, GATA magazine releases the exclusive film online.