Forbidden Love in a Dystopian World

In an oppressed, dystopian society lives a lover who, despite being against the systematic problems of their world, benefits by being part of the elite as royal blood and is promised to the heir of this society’s ruler. Then, before the lover, appears a byronical lover who infatuates the promised lover. As kindred spirits, their emotions for each other are forbidden and the promised has no other option but to run away at the altar to escape with her forbidden lover, leaving the heir in despair. But the two lovers’ downfall was pitted from the very beginning and the forbidden lover is left to be executed by the higher ups, leaving the runaway bride mourning in darkness. 

 

This is the narrative for “The Ballad of Two Lovers: In Three Parts” by Maximilian Raynor, the 24-year-old’s debut collection presented at Central Saint Martins’ BA Graduate show in May. Upon first meeting Raynor in the design studio at Kings Cross, he wore a printed button up with a vintage pair of blue Levi’s, Martine Rose mules and a bright smile that juxtaposed the tired atmosphere created by his concentrated peers. “I'm quite positive and I do love it here,” says Raynor about CSM after being rejected twice whilst polishing his portfolio at Kingston and Ravensbourne University until the third time was the charm and he enrolled in BA Fashion Design and Marketing. “I love Kingston, it was great, but I just had that bug for CSM and I knew it was the place for me.”

 

The Derbyshire-born designer knew from the very beginning that fashion was the path he was destined for, saying “I've designed my whole life. When I was three, I would do scribbles in my colouring book and I would tell my parents ‘this is a fashion design’ - when I was about seven, I started making my clothes.” Becoming the first male in his school’s textiles class, he started making runway looks from as young as 12 years old, gradually increasing the volume each year and ending his sixth form years with fifteen look collections. He reminisces that fashion, back in his high school days, was more of a hobby but came with its benefits in the long run for when he did arrive at CSM, saying “back then, it was like for your girlfriends, making cocktail dresses. It wasn't the height of design but it was really good training so when I arrived here, I already had a making skillset and wasn't daunted by that side of it.”

 

Although he has been designing his whole life, Raynor could not escape his love for theatre that he felt he could explore further, saying “it was very hard for me to decide between the two - I was very much torn between wanting to be a designer and wanting to be in the world of drama or performing arts, either as an actor or as a director.” Oppressing his theatrical side to pursue his desires to become a designer, he couldn’t help but let that side bleed through his work, referencing Lady Macbeth in a project dubbed Incarnadine which had strong nods to Shakespearean Theatre. However, for his graduate collection, he decided to break his dormance of theatre and use it as the driving force for his final offering at CSM, asking himself “What are you missing in your life? What do you need? What passion have you not been exploring recently?” The result was him directing his collection like a play where his models played the role of characters in his very own narrative of romantic tragedy, using plays such as Moulin Rouge and Romeo & Juliet as inspiration. Designing with this concept in mind came relatively easy for him too, saying “rather than sort of desperately trying to think of designs, it was like ‘what do these characters look like in your head’ and then the designs are quite easy because, if you're someone that imagines quite vividly like me, it's quite easy then to clothe them.”

 

But despite historically referencing a lot of 16th century ideas, his garments remain astonishingly futuristic in both shape and fabric. A signature of Raynor is his “ribbon textile”, a textile made from horse tape, that is a running motif throughout this collection that perfectly captures the feeling of being caged in, a recurring emotion that many of the characters in his narrative feel throughout. “I developed this textile during lockdown, it was horse fencing tape which is used to section-off livestock in fields. Each strip is sewn together individually - I'm trying to sort of integrate it as a bit of a signature to what I do: this kind of crinkly, pleated dishevelled looking material” says the designer. The duality between the fragility and skeletal nature of the fabric and the running theme of anarchy and violence of the narrative not only creates a unique juxtaposition but shows the depth of contradicting emotions his characters experience. 

 

Much like his ribbon textile, Raynor also opts for a long, cape-like organza cocoon for his first look titled “The Lover” that is extremely flowy and fragile. His clever use of contrasts come into play once again as he pairs the delicate organza with a pair of hand embellished beaded chaps with sturdy silver hardware. “It's that language of protection through armour, but also exposure and delicacy through the organza” says Raynor. With balance through the light elegance of the organza and the punk edge from the embellishment, it tells the story of “The Lover” who leaves themselves exposed to love and infatuation yet is physically protected, most notably in the crotch area, by the dystopian society. 

 

The colour palette is a key element in the collection that elevates the story of the two lovers, clearly showcasing the progression of emotions that the characters feel as events within the narrative occur. However, the 24 year-old designer chose what he describes as a “strict colour palette” by looking at references outside of theatre, most notably paintings, as he explains, “Derek Jarman is somebody I love, The Dreamers by Bertolucci and then a lot of old paintings like John Arthur Lomax, Hermann Nitsch, Robert Alexander Hillingford.” With colour-blocking in mind, he labels the four colours in the collection with the mood he intends them to exert, saying “ X-ray is what I'm calling white, this idea of sanitised, electronic florals, like a flower has been X-rayed - Blood is what I'm calling red. Royal Blood is what I'm calling the blue. This idea that they're like this privileged, royal blood-like people - very grand. And then Mourning is what I'm calling black to forebode mourning.” The coherent symbolism between the colours and emotions make the narrative a lot more digestible and understandable to viewers of the collection whilst still leaving room for personal interpretation. 

 

Outside of garments, Raynor took it upon himself to even create his own footwear. Coming in black, blue and red, the vegan patent leather riding boot features a high shaft with 3D ”X” cross studs, a steel-capped square and a high block heel. Looking at the current state of the boot game, he wants to push the boots commercially, saying “I think there's a market for really cool footwear. For people that don't necessarily wear trainers but don't want to wear vintage sort of brogues because I think it's hard to find really cool shoes.”

 

Designing a collection can be an extremely stressful task where you could be running around desperately trying to finish all the looks before the shoot and deadline but not for Raynor. Unlike many other designers that have had to cram a lot of the work at the end, he took a more disciplined and logical approach that paid off, finishing his garments well before the deadline to make sure he had time for fittings before the shoot. But he is human after all and did experience difficulties as he critically says “the hardest thing has been time management and that's something I'm good at. I've always kind of been okay with it - but that was the biggest challenge: making sure that I stuck to it and didn't become complacent.” 

 

Despite thinking about the future and having ambitions to create his own label, sometimes you need to know when to stop and take a breather. For now, his main focus is riding on the wave of praise he has received from publications such as British Vogue, Italian Vogue and Dazed as well as commissioning his pieces off for shoots because, as he says, “That's kind of all that you want at the end of it.” 

 

As his time at Central Saint Martins comes to a close, Raynor’s biggest takeaway is how the institution planted the seed of doubt that ripened his creativity and ideas further than he could’ve imagined. Constantly questioning himself on the originality and cultural relevance of his work paid off in the end because now, he can step out of Granary Square with satisfaction as, from his self reflection, “all those questions that were born out of self doubt became the driving force behind transitioning from the sort of designer that made prom dresses for his friends to somebody that, I feel now, could have a brand and have a vision and push something that feels new and creative and fun and not just another clothing brand.”