The Bite Magazine - Autumn/Winter 2023 - Issue 34

bitefashion For her AW23 ‘London Holiday’ offering, Edeline Lee present- ed a guerrilla-style immersive show directed by Zeina Dur- ra that guided the audience on a short walk through Mayfair filled with charming encounters. The show sought to reveal the hidden joys that can be found in our everyday lives through the power of community and the pleasures her muse, the in- quisitive Future Lady, discovers in a beautiful corner of Lon- don. The journey began at the Piccadilly entrance of Burlington Ar- cade, where gipsy jazz musicians riffed on Chopin’s Mazurka in G minor from the window above the crowds of shoppers. The romantic melody is repeated throughout the production, reimagined in different guises, like a love song to London. Dancers prepared the scene, sweeping the floors and polishing the windows. An elegant woman perused the gossip column of The Edeline Lee Times , a fictional newspaper while having her shoes shined. Outside, you witness tourists dancing across the street to the sounds of a child practising the Mazurka. You keep walking and see a lovely girl reading a book against a street lamp. Sad- ly, you have little time to ask her what she is reading because a photoshoot is unfolding across the road at 24 Cork Street. Frieze No 9 Cork Street has been transformed into a news- stand, and a paparazzo (male photographer) flirts with the proprietor. You’re handed a newspaper copy with a map to guide you. Delightful music draws you into the passageway. There is a moment of stillness as two women play a tense chess game. You ponder who might have the winning streak, but their faces give little away. The sounds of Chopin coax you to 30 Old Burl- ington Street, where a concert pianist plays a grand piano for two dancers falling into one another’s arms. Down the road, a distinguished couple unload their shopping outside Anderson & Sheppard, serenaded by a flugelhorn from the window. At the Royal Academy of Arts portico facade, a children’s choir sang into the afternoon. A Future Lady strolled with her Dal- matian, passing a young woman buying a single flower at a market stall. “Having collaborated with Edeline from the start of her career, I [was] excited about this show, her most am- bitious yet, which [brought] the streets of Mayfair alive. We worked with different performance mediums to create a mi- crocosm of the Edeline Lee world,” film director Zeina Durra said. “The Future Lady exemplifies what dignity, grace, femininity, and power look like on accomplished women today,” Edeline revealed. “I want my audience to step into the Future Lady’s shoes, to see London as a treasure trove of possibility wherein small gestures carry great meaning and poetic adventures are only around the corner. This project brought together the local community of Mayfair in a celebration of London. It is a hom- age to the city I love, to its heritage and creativity.”