Walking into Marco Capaldo’s Hackney Studio on a rainy Thursday morning, I brace myself for feathers, sequins and tinsel galore. After all, his brand 16Arlington is best known for marabou-trimmed party dresses and skin-tight, embellished numbers.
But Capaldo’s office is more like an image out of an interior-design magazine: it’s pared back – almost empty – and extremely tidy, the taupe concrete floors and white walls broken up by a neat row of sky-high cupboards behind a vast marble desk, a canvas evocative of a black Rothko painting hanging to its side. I can’t help thinking about how my expectation and the reality mirror the nuanced contrasts that run through his brand: high-voltage glamour meets effortless cool. Loud and out there, yet simultaneously minimalist. I also can’t help thinking he has very good taste.
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Sitting down with Capaldo is like catching up with an old friend, even though we’ve never met before. It’s easy to be drawn in by his affable, slightly shy demeanour. He greets me with a warm embrace, inviting me to sit on one of two Barcelona chairs (lovingly salvaged from a skip behind Harrods, he tells me) while he curls up on the other in his black tailored trousers, a black jumper slung casually over his white T-shirt. (He typically wears black, he says. It’s one less thing to worry about.)
‘I’ve always loved design, I’ve always loved beautiful things, whether it’s art or architecture, books or furniture,’ he tells me.
Right now, Capaldo really is the man of the hour, cementing his status as one of the brightest young talents on the London Fashion Week calendar. Fashion folk adore him: everyone from Hailey Bieber to Marina Abramović has been photographed in his clothes. Stores such as Harrods report his brand is among their top sellers – no mean feat for a six-year-old indie label, particularly in an industry that breaks more young designers than it makes.
It is now Capaldo’s fifth season as the brand’s sole creative director, after his partner in life and business Federica ‘Kikka’ Cavenati died suddenly in 2021, three years after the couple started 16Arlington together. It was a critical juncture both professionally and personally; the brand, he says, was born out of their shared love for design, women and one another. ‘I can’t emphasise it enough: it’s something that wouldn’t have happened if we didn’t have each other,’ he says. A picture of Cavenati sits on his desk today.
Starting a fashion label wasn’t originally part of Capaldo’s plan. Born to Italian parents, he grew up in London and went onto study at the UK campus of the esteemed Istituto Marangoni school of fashion. It was there that he met Cavenati – Italian born and bred – and the pair ‘quite naively’ started a brand. ‘In hind-sight, I think there’s a lot of beauty in that naivety,’ he muses. ‘When you jump into something, not knowing all the highs and lows, you’re almost fearless.’
From the outset, there was a duality that underpinned the essence of 16Arlington, Capaldo tells me: a brand helmed by a man and a woman; the interplay of minimalist and maximalist sensibilities; designs infused with both British and Italian influences. Above all, it was about creating pieces that made women feel like the best versions of themselves. ‘More than a specific person, we design for an attitude,’ he says. The aesthetic? ‘Confidence. It’s about clothes that fit and feel good.’
From the get-go, 16Arlington was a hit with celebrities and buyers alike. Poppy Lomax, head of buying at Harrods, puts it down to Capaldo’s ‘unique ability to blend the London-girl look with a touch of grunge, while still maintaining a sense of glamour and femininity’. She recalls an early meeting with Capaldo and Cavenati when 16Arlington was still in its infancy. ‘Even then, I could sense there was an indescribable quality and uniqueness to the clothes that simply had to be experienced by trying them on.’
In fact, part of the magic of the pieces is in their wearability. Sure, tinsel skirts and feathered dresses don’t scream ‘walk the dog’ or ‘pop to the supermarket’, but these are clothes that are meant to be worn, outfits designed for having a good time. Underneath the sex and the sizzle, there’s a slight mischievousness to them. They are truly a lesson in putting the joy back in dressing up.
This isn’t lost on Capaldo. Commercial may be a dirty word in fashion but, as he astutely points out: ‘Creatively, you have to propose a dream, but if that dream doesn’t resonate, then there’s no business… These clothes have to exist in the real world. They have to work for the person wearing them, not vice versa.’
It’s hard not to be taken with Capaldo’s clear affinity for the modern female sensibility, which has helped to draw a strong community of women around him and his brand: model Alva Claire and artist Rhea Dillon, author Otegha Uwagba and ELLE contributing editor Lynette Nylander, Adwoa Aboah, Paloma Elsesser, Shygirl, Jorja Smith… Even his team of 20 full-time staff is mostly female.
‘When I met Marco, I realised that so much of what I lovea bout his brand can be found in his character, too,’ says AlexaChung, who accompanied the designer to the Fashion Awards last year wearing 16Arlington. ‘He’s intelligent and knowledgeable, but is able to carry his talent with an ease and playfulness that only the truly serious can afford.’
Serious about his brand Capaldo certainly is. He appears to be always thinking three steps ahead, working to carefully balance his creativity with the needs of the business. It’s probably why he has managed to thrive at such a challenging time for young labels. The cost-of-living crisis is hitting brands, too, and with no outside investors, he has no financial safety net to fall back on. Meanwhile, many of the key stores that young creatives rely on for sales and exposure are struggling, with the traditional wholesale model that once underpinned the luxury industry in fast decline.
Yet Capaldo maintains a sense of practical optimism, hopeful that greener grass is just around the corner: ‘It’s about navigating this time in a really efficient way. As with many things in life, the only way to face a challenge is, unfortunately, to go straight through it.’
Right now, that means expanding collections to establish 16Arlington as a ready-to-wear brand with a full wardrobe offering. In its most recent show, plenty of sharp tailoring, cosy knits and boxy wool coats that would slip comfortably into any editor’s wardrobe featured among the mammoth shaggy jackets, glittering stoles and show-stopping tinsel numbers. Last year, Capaldo added menswear to the mix and broadened the accessories line. Its hero bag, the Kikka, pays tribute to the brand’s late co-founder.
‘For me, creating has been a kind of medicine,’ he says, reflecting on the past few years. ‘Building on something we started together, and continuing a legacy that I began with someone I loved.’
This story appeared in the June issue of ELLE UK, on newsstands May 9.
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