POET-LAB SS27 ‘REMEMBER’ Turns Memory Into Architectural Form at London Fashion Week

POET-LAB presented its SS27 collection REMEMBER in London on 18 September during London Fashion Week, using memory, identity and the personal history of muse Elton Ilirjani as the basis for a wardrobe of oversized volumes, asymmetric tailoring and genderless forms. Albania provides the collection’s geographic and emotional starting point, while Brutalist architecture, raw concrete and industrial geometry inform a visual language built on the tension between rigid structure and fluid movement.

Albania as a Point of Departure

Rather than treating memory as nostalgia, POET-LAB frames it as something active: a part of identity that is carried forward and continually reshaped. The collection began with Ilirjani’s connection to Albania, using their personal history as a route into broader questions about how places and experiences remain embedded in the way a person understands themselves.

The resulting references are architectural rather than literal. Albania’s industrial landscapes and enduring built structures inform geometric forms, metal and concrete imagery, which are set against softer, sculptural silhouettes. According to the brand, that contrast between architecture and vulnerability has been part of POET-LAB’s design vocabulary across previous collections.

In REMEMBER, the idea becomes particularly clear through proportion. Oversized shapes create volume around the body, asymmetric tailoring interrupts conventional balance, and genderless forms loosen familiar distinctions within dressing. A restrained colour approach leaves more attention on the construction itself, allowing silhouette and proportion to carry much of the collection’s visual argument.

When Structure Meets Vulnerability

There is an intentional contradiction at the centre of REMEMBER. Architectural references suggest permanence, weight and control, while the body introduces movement and instability. Rather than resolving that tension, POET-LAB uses it to connect the collection’s physical construction with its wider subject.

Clothing becomes a container for what has already happened: not a literal archive, but a way of thinking about how identity accumulates through experience. The brand describes memory as a form of resistance to conformity, positioning the act of remembering as a means of maintaining individuality rather than simply looking backwards.

Ilirjani is central to that idea. Their presence gives the collection a specific biography rather than leaving its references to Albania at the level of abstraction. The relationship between muse, place and clothing grounds POET-LAB’s conceptual language in an individual history that the brand argues cannot be separated from identity.

A Genderless Language Built Around Geometry

Founded in London in 2023 by creative director Giuseppe Iaciofano, POET-LAB describes its wider practice through genderless luxury streetwear, poetic minimalism and oversized geometry. The brand works with repurposed deadstock fabrics and positions inclusivity and freedom of self-expression as continuing principles within its work.

Its official London Fashion Week profile similarly identifies geometric, minimal silhouettes and architectural structure as central to the label’s design language, placing REMEMBER within an established line of exploration rather than presenting architectural form as a one-season device.

For SS27, that language is used to examine what remains when fashion moves beyond immediate novelty. REMEMBER does not attempt to recreate the past. Instead, it asks how personal history can continue to influence the shape of the present — through a silhouette, a proportion or the decision to carry something forward rather than erase it.

Show credits include photographer @marcushartelt, videographer Adam Cripps, jewellery by @rosejoyuk, bags by @matbmaterialbag, eyewear accessories by @faglasses.jp, make-up leads @jacy_garland_hmua and @backstagebeautyldn, and hair lead @prettygorgeoushair. Gift bag sponsors were @beautylab_london, @cioccolatopuro, @forestfeast, @miicosmetics and @feelreformed.