Under the sea – or at least three levels under London’s busiest shopping district – is where we find Edward Crutchley this season.

For SS23, the designer devised a Mer-army, lorded over by a himbo Venus De Milo that stomps across the seabed in a pair of metallic platform sandals and a cropped bra-tops (bejewelled in tandem with some skimpy matching underwear). He is joined by a metallic empress, cloaked in layers of decadent gownage, sort of how we’d imagine a high fashion Ursula (of Little Mermaid fame) once plucked from the ocean and signed to a major modelling agency.

The designer’s subterranean paradise defied laws of physics with stretchy knitwear that dropped to the knees in XXXXL cardigan vests, or fashioned itself after a glittering Aurora Borealis and colourful coral in body-hugging column dresses, inspired themselves by stories of metamorphosis in Greek mythology. It was this spirit of change, and of identity in bloom, that inspired Crutchley to develop his own textiles for the collection, reinventing cloqué – a doubled-up fabric technique that adds puckers and texture to the material – with lurex to create an iridescent sheen, or aluminium to form a crinkled texture, like raindrops sliding down a car window, or the wrinkles of your fingertips after a long swim.