Charlotte Knowles and Alexandre Arsenault have spent nearly a decade defining the KNWLS woman. Since launching the cult London label in 2017, the founders and creative directors have built it around an attitude as much as a silhouette. “The KNWLS woman always has an edge. It’s about redefining what it means to be feminine and flipping it on its head,” says Alexandre. The clothes make the case, and the women drawn to them share that same spirit. (KNWLS has been worn by everyone from our founder Dua Lipa to Beyoncé.)
After a two-year break from the London shows, the brand is back on the fashion week calendar. Ahead of the show on 20th September, Service95 visited Charlotte and Alexandre at their studio for an inside look at their SS27 collection, Chambre Close, in which “the heroine becomes undone”.
The title comes from Bettina Rheims’ photography series of women in various states of undress. The book was central to Charlotte’s early design process and to the foundations of KNWLS itself. Rediscovering it sparked a collection of clothes that come undone and slip away from the body: tops designed to read as skirts, lifted to reveal a hint of underwear, and trompe-l'œil details that turn knee tattoos into stockings.
But the clothes are just part of the picture. From casting choices to styling sessions with the brand’s longtime collaborator Georgia Pendlebury, the video below shows exactly what goes into those final 10 minutes on the runway.
The process involves layered references and exacting detail, with a story told from every angle. Through it all, one thing remains clear: nearly a decade in, the KNWLS woman is still the girl Charlotte designed for while completing her MA at Central Saint Martins. Like Charlotte, she has simply grown up.
