There’s about a week to go until Erdem Moralıoğlu unveils his spring/summer 2027 collection at London Fashion Week – the point at which most designers might look a little, erm, frazzled. Not Erdem. He is positively radiant. His skin is incredible. What’s the 48-year-old’s secret? “I love sunblock,” he says, before adding, almost as an aside, “Oh, and I don’t wash my face.”

There’s a reason we’re talking about beauty. The Canadian designer has spent the past couple of months working with Merit, the clean beauty brand famed for its dewy, your-skin-but-better make-up, to reimagine the shades and packaging of some of its bestselling products. And while fashion and beauty collaborations are nothing new, this particular pairing makes a lot of sense. His two decades of runway romance – gowns of petal-like pale-pink silk organza or double duchesse concoctions thrashed with intricate embroidery – have always been accompanied by a distinctive vision of beauty, offering a way into the lives of the women, characters and historical figures who populate his collections.

Erdem x Merit.

Erdem x Merit.

It helped that Aila Morin – Merit’s marketing director and a fellow Canadian – had long been a fan. “I realised that I have been following his work since he started,” she says, with a laugh. The project took shape when, scrolling through an old Pinterest board for campaign references, she came across a board dedicated to the designer’s work from 2008. “I was craving this floral embellishment moment for Merit,” she says. “And it just brought me back to loving that era of Erdem.” Describing Merit as “very fashion adjacent”, Morin adds that collaborations like this support the make-up label’s emphasis on slow, thoughtful creation rather than constant drops. “What’s so powerful about Merit is we don’t launch a ton of products,” she continues. “Having someone come in and give their new perspective makes it more interesting.”

Erdem x Merit.

The collection will make its runway debut at Erdem’s upcoming show, with make-up by Lynsey Alexander. Perennially inspired by nature, the designer dreamt up autumnal tones for the label’s signature lip trio, blush balm, cream shadow, highlighter and mascara – the burnt oranges and reds of crisp fallen leaves, the mahogany of conkers and the bruised pinks of a fading September rose.

And this being Erdem, every detail has been considered, down to the carnations dotting the packaging. The high-shine finish, meanwhile, recalls his autumn/winter 2020 show, where Cecil Beaton inspired the silver foil stamped onto his models’s brow bones and hair. “Beauty,” says Erdem, “is essential” to his runways. Still, few people want to turn up to work with metallic eyelids. He knows this, which is why Merit’s formulas – rich in colour yet buildable – were a big draw. “There’s this beautiful sheerness to so much of what they do. Each woman can use it in their own way, which is great,” he says. “As much as it’s the idea of a character, it’s also something that’s very real, that creates beautiful skin.”

Erdem x Merit.

That it nods as much to his past as to the present was intentional. “This year is our 20-year anniversary,” the designer explains. “So it was impossible to not think about all of the muses and women I’ve explored and studied.” Who, then, has this avid researcher cast as his muse this season? Could it be Barbette, as ’s chief runway critic Sarah Mower suggested in her Resort 2027 review? A coy “you’ll have to wait and see” is all that any persistent wheedling gets out of him. But perhaps his recent visit to the British Museum, where he is a trustee, offers a clue. “I went to see the Bayeux Tapestry, which was made in 1066 by these extraordinary embroiderers from Canterbury,” he says. “There’s not very many women depicted in the tapestry, like three or four out of hundreds of men. But that’s my current obsession.” “And,” he adds with a smile, “sunblock”.

Erdem x Merit launches globally on 22 September.