Erdem x H&M: the ballgown is taking over the high street

Go big or go home: that is the new party dress code. Forget the little black dress, and get ready for the grand gown. When Erdem x HM drops on 2 November, the smart money will be snapping up a £149 party dress with intricate snowdrop embroidery on formal stiff jacquard, embellished with a traditional grosgrain bow and falling from a precisely gathered waist into a voluminous, ankle-length tiered skirt.

The November issue of British Vogue features Claire Foy in a floor-sweeping, dusty-pink ballgown by Christian Siriano. As the star of Netflix drama The Crown, Foy is no stranger to a ballgown. The Crown, Downton Abbey, the Queen’s 90thbirthday last year, Gucci’s sponsorship of an exhibition of English aristocratic style at Chatsworth House and the resurgence of Princess Diana as a style iconthat has accompanied the 20th anniversary of her death are combining to revive the ballgown, a style of dress that until recently seemed as anachronistic to modern entertaining as the bouillon spoon.

The snowdrop-embroidered ballgown is one of the standout showpieces of Erdem x HM, this year’s most eagerly awaited designer/high street collaboration, which goes on sale next month. Erdem Moralioglu was born in Canada to a Turkish father and British mother, moved from Montreal to Birmingham as a child and founded the Erdem label in 2005. In the past four years, Moralioglu has been awarded three top gongs at the British Fashion awards – red carpet designer of the year, womenswear designer and establishment designer – and has expanded his business from a space in Hackney, north-east London, to a Mayfair boutique and headquarters.