URBAN ODYSSEY: INSIDE THE DW25 LAUNCH

IN DIALOGUE WITH NAINA ZILBERMINTS, WYLIE CHURCHILL, AND JACK GROVE

‘MY NAME IS NOBODY’ - ODYSSEUS

N: From crashing waves and siren calls to the gritty commotion of city life, ‘Urban Odyssey’ asks us to imagine Odysseus’ mythic voyage in conversation with the chaos and alienation of the present day. And so, we arrive at the Weaving Shed, tucked away in an unassuming corner, a space that once thrived as the epicentre of Dundee’s textile industry, now transformed into the setting for our Odyssey. But once the doors opened, water lights flooded the factory’s concrete floor. Immediately we are thrown into a rapid flux between the industrial setting and fluid maritime projections. 

W: In a tale as old as time, we all know to steer clear of the siren’s song. But, it’s not so easily done in the case of the DONT WALK’s 2025 Launch. J: The first half of the show took inspiration from the coastal towns of the Mediterranean having the guests ushered in with the sound of crashing waves and the smell of incense. The show started with a short reading from the Odyssey. W: A lone performer clothed in white, a silhouette of hands guiding her, and the invocation of the Muse all worked together to bring us into the Odyssey and I, I was just as entranced as any sailor roaming the high seas. J: The underlying aspects of the Odyssey, a longing for home and the journey back to loved ones, were a centrepiece in the show. N: A familiar one at that, as a restless longing for the sea is common to both Odysseus and the St Andrews crowd and J: we were all happy to trade the cold North Sea for some warmer waters.

J: The soft siren-like entrance of the first models in sheer fabrics, with white structural dresses creased and folded in ways to look like sea foam, and subtle pastel tones moving quietly across the stage looked like figures walking straight out of Greek mythology. W: While the blue, green, and purple lights of the room played off the fabric, creating what seemed like a splashing rhythm of waves upon white sand. Donning dresses of netting and mesh, and with hair still wet from a journey through the sea, the entire showroom felt like a world operating just above the water’s surface. The rhythmic music and seascape backdrop only enhanced this feeling. J: And as the models walked past each other as distant partners hoping to be reunited, we were reminded again of the longing which underlies Odysseus’s journey. N: The models seem to have become both the traveller, the obstacles, and the temptations that they would encounter along the journey. 

N: But before we became totally emerged into the mythic of the Odyssey, the lights went dark and the music quickly shifted. J: The urban aspect of the show began. Models dressed in all black emerged from behind the curtain and hurriedly strode across the stage. W: Amid the contrast of colour and the blackout which followed, the show’s pace quickened and brought us onlookers into a world of urban legend. N: This was most definitely no longer Odysseus’ usual terrain. With projections of the sea swapped out for busy cityscapes and mundane visuals of commuters at Edinburgh Waverley, our models continued traversing on their journey. Ah, we’re in ‘The Waste Land’ now, where Odysseus’ “My name is Nobody” begins to ring more forcefully than ever. 

N: So as the music’s BPM increased and the sounds of techno drowned out the ethereal calls of sirens once familiar to us, the models’ dress changed too. J: The brooding militaristic walks of a sudden wave of models dressed in thick furs and reflective jackets, W: neon, and plaid… what better way to start an industrial revolution? The asymmetrical designs and odd angular shapes of the clothing turned the runway into a vast collage of colours and textures. I can attest to the deliberate harshness and imposition of urban anonymity that this half of the show intended to evoke. Namely, the three models, dressed in red and black, faces almost wholly obscured by the fabric covering them. 

W: Sprinkled between looks of urban mania were callbacks to the sirens and muses of the Odyssey. With an especially brilliant look from our in-house designer, Saskia Dickinson who, in this part of the show, gave us a black cropped jacket with two white ghost-like hands sewn onto its shoulders. This struck me as reminiscent of our show’s opening dance, where a shadow of hands played fate or puppet master to the dancing model. N: In the models’ walks too, this connection was all but severed. While they walked quickly and almost robotically they continued to interact and acknowledge each other, always pulled back to the journey and one another. W: This all came to fruition in the final walk, where the siren-urban narrative became one as the models all walked out dressed in looks that have come to define the separation between the two parts of the show. N: The mythic and the urban converged together and as the models alternated between the siren-like walk and the robotic urban one they were put into conversation with one another. Seeing these seemingly disparate styles at once together on the runway appeared to tell us that the traveller represented by the models will always be drawn back to the temptations of the unknown journeys, whether at sea or lost amid a packed train station.