Natasha Zinko searched far and wide for an aesthetics clinic to backdrop her pre-fall lookbook—but said they all felt a little too… clinical. Instead, the designer and her longtime stylist Betsy Johnson decided to makeshift a ward from a London photo studio: a place she imagined the surged-up cast of her spring 2025 presentation might like to visit for lunchtime tweakments. “Everyone’s getting work done and they’re not afraid to admit it anymore,” she said. “It’s become a normal topic of conversation at dinner parties. The more I talk to people about it, the more I want to investigate it.” Her tone shifted between total open-mindedness and a tabloid-like obsession with strangers’s bodies.
Fair enough. For as mainstream as cosmetic procedures have become, the before-and-after snapshot (and all the gruesome bits that take place in between) remains the subject of media scandal—particularly when things go wrong. Zinko’s fascination with these botched beauties figured throughout the collection in garments deconstructed and reassembled with twisted seams and crooked zippers. Broad-shouldered blazers in windowpane checks and sensible office shirts were flipped back-to-front. Asymmetric denim dresses had the uncomfortable appearance of layered jeans, doubled-up polos were sutured together as one piece, rogue cuffs disfigured the legs on baggy sweatpants. Hoodies looked as though they had been tied around the waist, but were, in fact, skirts.
Silk polka-dot blouses and surgical gowns, tartan mini skirts and cotton poplin shirts were upcycled from previous collections and leftover samples. (Resourceful to some, textile body horror to others.) To that end: the inclusion of cutesy bag charms recalls a scene in The Substance when Monstro Elisasue pierces the side of her face—if you can even call it that—with a crystal earring in a last-ditch attempt to distract from her grotesque form. Unlike Coralie Fargeat’s film, it is unclear as to whether this collection critiqued or celebrated cosmetic interventions—but you get the impression that Zinko likes to keep it ambiguous. “Let us know if you have any doctors to recommend,” the designer and her team added towards the end of our conversation. “We’re always interested in discovering new ones.”
