With runway pieces clocking-up more airmiles than most international diplomats, getting an hour with look four from Prada’s SS22 collection is like striking gold. In the case of Dazed’s junior fashion editor Mirko Pedone, it helps that said samples are often stowed away in the fashion cupboard. “Why would I let them sit there gathering dust, not getting the glory they deserve?,” he asks. “They might not end up in a glossy spread but they can still help to build iconic images. The limits are endless.” With the ghosts of the most recent womenswear season lined up on rails in the attic like church bells waiting to be rung, Pedone called on Elijah Horne and hastily staged a photoshoot.

Clean but not without character, boyish models’ are knees bent into innocent triangles, as they lean into the backs of wooden chairs in full-bodied shearling, while others fan leather foreman skirts into a polite curtsey. “I feel there’s a strong link between Elijah’s photography and that of Peter Hujar, who’s one of my fave photographers ever,” Pedone adds, noting how his usual process of moodboarding had to be abandoned, choosing instead to be inspired by the clothes at hand. “And then, on the morning of the shoot, one of the models dropped-out, so I decided that Elijah was going to have to step into a silk skirt. I couldn’t have been happier with the outcome, though – the look was meant for him.” Perhaps it’s that scrappiness – or spontaneity – that makes these images feel so approachable.  

“Styling is an honest and instinctive process, it has to come out naturally. There’s no formula, and I know it sounds cheesy, but you need to have fun with it.” By mining the slipstream between outsized and skintight silhouettes, light and dark colour palettes, menswear and womenswear, Horne and Pedone illuminate the spaces in between fashion’s binaries. For Pedone, it’s Prada’s origami-tailed miniskirt (AKA look four) that best embodies this message, paired with latex tights and a parapet-shouldered blazer from Vivienne Westwood. “I wear a lot of womenswear myself and there are some pieces that just work on everyone,” he says. “Intelligent styling is styling with a purpose. These pieces go beyond gender and that’s what I want to address in my work.”

Click through the gallery above to see the rest of the shoot. 

Photographer: ELIJAH HORNE, Stylist: MIRKO PEDONE, Casting director: NICO CARMANDAYE, Hair stylist: ADAM GARLAND, MUA: CLAIRE URQUHART, Photography assistant: JAMES GREENHALGH, Styling assistant: FRANCESCA RUSSO, MODEL 1: Tom @Menace, MODEL 2: Babafemi @Supa, MODEL 3: Zack @Next, MODEL 4: Hachem @LisRuttenAgency, MODEL 5: Jac @xDirectn, Special thanks to MYRTLE STUDIOS.