The Duality of Desire at Di Petsa
Review of Di Petsa Fall 2025 Fashion Show
By Angela Baidoo
THE COLLECTION
THE VIBE
Divinity, Darkness, Desire
What propels a young designer into the limelight in today’s image-obsessed culture is often a strong directional aesthetic that operates within a particular niche. A niche which can be strangely intriguing to an increasingly fatigued customer due to its ability to offer them something different. But it is often after a few solid seasons – and the rise of newer younger designers – that the decision whether to stick or shift comes into play. Evolve or die if you will.
In the case of designer Dimitra Petsa, her wet-look technique and the glorification of the goddess always makes for an engaging presentation, where the thread of storytelling, usually extracted from the folklore tales of her greek heritage (this season it was the turn of Eros) is evident through the performance or props carried by models. Yet, this season, while her presentation tapped into a battle between light and dark, the underworld and paradise, the collection could have benefitted from a tighter edit and an extension of her exploration into knitwear, such as a menswear sweater with a lattice detail could have been translated into a number of figure-flattering silhouettes, as we have seen in past seasons with her laddering textures.
Another particularly strong look in the collection was her fur dress spliced with leather panels which presented as a new way to incorporate animal patterns onto the runway, rather than the tried and tested leopard or zebra print coats, and by taking a look at the way in which retail stockists buy into the brand – either opting for the dramatic eveningwear or the signature wet-look effect in everyday jersey separates – there is scope to build out the Di Petsa world with the addition of highly-tactile yet structured styles.
In her storytelling Petsa rarely misses and like many of her peers who want to speak to the current climate without being overly explicit, they speak instead to the battle between darkness and light. For Petsa darkness came in the form of the vampire, as models bared their fangs symbolising “the hunger within desire, the darkness that sharpens the light” as outlined in the show notes. But desire was also reflected as light as the chest and crotch were a key focus for todays collection, representing “the two divine centres of pleasure, emotion, and power”, perhaps alluding to the fact that it is in fact the way in which we subvert desire that can lead down a path of good or evil – desire for power and money, or a desire for love and connection. A subtle, subliminal, and ohh so smart observation from Di Petsa.
THE DIRECTION
THE WRAP UP
A constant stand-out on the London fashion week schedule, the brands singular narrative showed the promise of exploration into new themes that played with familiar ideas – such as an animal print update and innovative take on the tracksuit – while her view on the fight between darkness and light being tied up in something as basic as desire is so simple its subversive.
