The boundaries between what is seen, felt and sensed are rarely fixed. At KNWLS’ Spring/Summer 2027 show, the distinction was deliberately blurred. Clothes appeared to slip from the body: torn lace, slashed slips, tangled jewellery, denim cut apart and stitched back together. Phantom tulle and invisible wire held everything in place, turning disintegration into something remarkably precise. Even the familiar had been made strange.
It was the logic of Chamble Close, a collection rooted in Bettina Rheims’ intimate photographs of women in various states of undress, and in the idea that femininity is less a fixed image than something constantly being pulled apart and put back together. For co-creative directors Charlotte Knowles and Alexandre Arsenault, revisiting the reference nearly a decade after first encountering it was less about nostalgia than discovering what had changed in the meantime.
Into this world came Escentric 01. Invisible but unmistakably present, its scent moved through the showspace as another element of the collection – something you couldn't see, but could feel. Built around Iso E Super, the fragrance has always been difficult to pin down: woody, radiant, skin-like and ever-shifting, revealing itself differently depending on who wears it. It seemed almost suspiciously well suited to clothes designed to do the same.
The connection between KNWLS and Escentric Molecules is less a case of fashion meeting fragrance than two disciplines recognising something familiar in each other. Both have made a habit of taking their respective languages apart and asking what happens when you remove the rules. KNWLS deconstructs the wardrobe; Escentric Molecules deconstructs perfumery. Neither is particularly interested in telling you exactly what something should be.
For Chambre Close, Escentric 01 became the final layer: an invisible presence that shifted with the wearer, lingered in the room and, as Alex puts it, created “a world that everyone can experience through all their senses.”
Straight off the runway, we caught up with Charlotte and Alex to talk scent, sensuality, and the strange familiarity of Escentric 01.
Where does your creative process typically begin?
Charlotte: Definitely from research. And this season, because we've almost had the brand for ten years, which is kind of wild, we were looking back at the origins of the brand and where we started. And we came across this book that I was looking at for my pre-collection on the MA called Chambre Close, which is a book by Bettina Rheims, who photographed these women in different stages of undress in very intimate situations. And we were just really inspired by the kind of way that the clothes were hanging off the body, and the colour palette, and the message of female empowerment. So that was the springboard for this collection.
Alex: Definitely. I think we always start from something emotional. We talk about where we want to take the brand, and what we've done in the past, and what's happening in the world. And I think this season, because of the ten year anniversary coming soon, I think we had this kind of crisis of looking back at the past and where we started. So I think that's why when we found that book, and it was like one of the first books that we looked at when we met, we were like, that's quite nice to go back to where we started and rethink about it with everything that we've learned in the past years.
Was there an element of nostalgia?
Charlotte: Definitely. And I think it's quite interesting to reinterpret something that you've already looked at so long ago. And it shows that you can reinterpret things in so many different ways.
Alex: Yes. We wanted the woman to feel a bit more emotional and a bit more effortless. See her as someone that's not unattainable, but a bit more relatable. There's conceptuality and there's show pieces but it's still someone that you can relate to and you're like, "Oh, I want to look like this."
Charlotte: There's still really archetypal pieces like denim jeans that are spliced, cut up and then put back together. So it's really drapey and there's fraying. Or the tank top that's scrunched and it has phantom tulle underneath, but it's still a tank top. We were really interested in making the woman a bit more real with the archetypal wardrobe garments.
How does individuality shape the way you approach design? Femininity isn't one-dimensional and it comes through here, it feels far more multifaceted.
Alex: Yes. And when we talk about the woman we design for, femininity for us is always presented in a way that's very individual and it's for herself. And that's why things are upside down, they're twisted, they're ruched together, they're put in different ways that feels like she did it for her, not for someone else.
Charlotte: Yes. And with the hair and makeup – the hair in particular – each girl was approached in quite an individual way. We had an idea for the way the hair would be done, but then Eugene [Souleiman] approached each girl and made it specific to her. They're not clones of each other; they have their own individual qualities and characters.
Escentric 01 is scenting both the space and the models. What does bringing scent into the collection add to the experience of CHAMBRE CLOSE, and how does it change the way the collection is experienced?
Charlotte: Scent is just such an evocative thing, isn't it?
Alex: When we talked with Escentric Molecules, what we were discussing a lot was this idea of individuality and this idea of making everything feel like it's for the person and the person is in control. So the scent made sense. And just in general, once you have music, you have the clothes, you have like the girls, you have the casting, if you add this layer of…
Charlotte: Heady immersion…
Alex: Yes, immersion, it creates a world that everyone can experience through all their senses.
Charlotte: And maybe when someone smells Escentric 01, they'll think about the collection, which is a nice thought.
Alex: I used to wear Escentric Molecules when I was younger, and I always feel like there's a certain mystery to it, and it becomes this kind of strange smell where you're like, "What does it smell like?" So it puts you in a headspace of mystery, and hopefully that makes the people think about the woman in a mysterious way as well.
There’s something particularly interesting about adding that invisible layer. And when you think about nostalgia and familiarity, people often describe Escentric 01 as feeling familiar without being able to quite place why. That sense of recognition is part of what makes it so compelling.
Alex: Which was exactly the theme of the collection, so it makes sense.
If Escentric 01 was a garment from the collection, which one would it be?
Alex: A tank top, I think, because it's so pure and it's literally just a block of phantom tulle and a tank top. It's so simple but so effective.
Charlotte: It's simple, but kind of complex in a way, in the way that it's constructed. Like it's very intentional the way that it's been placed, but it looks very effortless.
What does London smell like to you?
Charlotte: Wow. Where our studio is in South Bermondsey, we have a recycling plant right next to the studio, so it smells like rubbish quite a lot of the time.
Alex: I think London smells like a big city. It smells like effervescence and a lot of things happening.
KNWLS in three words.
Alex: “Duality” for sure, because we're two and we have different perspectives on things.
Charlotte: “Sensuality”…
Alex: Sensuality in a way that maybe is not for someone else. And then “control”.
Escentric Molecules in three words.
Charlotte: Escentric Molecules in three words would be “elusive”…
Alex: “Mystery,” and “nostalgia”.
