Who To Look Out For At London Fashion Week Men’s AW17
By Something CuratedAs ever, this season, the rebranded London Fashion Week Men’s, formerly known as London Collections Men, showcases a breadth of exciting new and emerging talent, alongside established favourites, running from 6th to 9th January 2017. Fashion East newcomers ART SCHOOL, helmed by Eden Loweth and Tom Barratt, promises to bring a challenging critique of gender to the forefront, whilst James Theseus Buck and Luke Brooks’ Rottingdean Bazaar is set to offer some audacious humour this season. Following her LVMH win last year and the completion of an artists’ residency in Senegal, we are eager to see how Grace Wales Bonner’s work will develop. Something Curated compiles a list of the AW17 collections we’re most excited to see, examining hints London designers have dropped this past week.
ART SCHOOL || Eden Loweth & Tom Barratt
ART SCHOOL, which debuts at London Fashion Week Men’s this season, focuses on redefining the limitations of ready-to-wear fashion blurring the lines of menswear and womenswear to create a modern representation of unisex clothes. Directed by the creative partnership of Eden Loweth and Tom Barratt the label is informed by the designers’ backgrounds as menswear and art criticism graduates respectively. Loweth graduated from BA Fashion at Ravensbourne specialising in menswear – his graduate collection received widespread praise for its portrayal of the evolving trans body. Barratt graduated from BA Art Criticism, Communication and Curation at Central Saint Martins; his studies focused on feminist film aesthetics and the communication of queer style within counter-culture. He is a practicing video artist and performer creating work related to his theoretical interests. ART SCHOOL will show under the umbrella of Fashion East Men’s Presentations for AW17.
Alex Mullins || Alex Mullins
British designer Alex Mullins studied at Central Saint Martins, where he was runner up in the L’Oreal Professional Young Designer of the Year Award. He went onto complete an MA in Menswear at the Royal College of Art. Mullins revealed this week that he is exploring themes of childhood nostalgia for AW17. The NewGen recipient is taking inspiration from chilly weekends spent wrapped up at home for his latest offering. Remembering childhood memories of eating cake at his grandmother’s home and watching videos, Mullins continues to explore storytelling through garments. The designer notes he will also revisit a character from his very first collection. An amalgam of cultural references and time periods, that inaugural FW14 narrative followed a cowboy from the Wild West, who ends up working as an artist in London during the 70s. We are curious to see how these diverse influences will come to life this season.
E. Tautz || Patrick Grant
In 2015 Patrick Grant won the BFC designer menswear fund, part of a twelve month mentoring programme for his transformation of the ready-to-wear line. Grant has accumulated numerous awards to his name, including the British Fashion Council’s Menswear Designer of the Year award in December 2010 for his work on E. Tautz. Last season, sharply collared polo shirts with stylish long sleeves, collarless pullover shirts with half plackets in khaki, and, in Grant’s signature style, high-waisted and generously pleated trousers, all featured. The garments were roomy, and elegantly proportioned with an air of old-fashioned sophistication. Grant posted a photograph of a scarecrow yesterday from Peter Mitchell’s book Some Thing Means Everything to Somebody, stating these are “images we have been much inspired by.” We are naturally interested to know how this will translate to E. Tautz’s AW17 line.
COTTWEILER || Ben Cottrell & Matthew Dainty
Ben Cottrell and Matthew Dainty collectively known as COTTWEILER, are concept led designers who respond instinctively to their social environment. Forward thinking design and manufacturing are combined with an aspirational quality to form a relevant menswear label. In addition to producing seasonal collections stocked worldwide, COTTWEILER produce films and installations, which have been showcased at The Institute of Contemporary Arts London, Haus Der Kunst Munich and Alison Jacques Gallery London. Earlier this week the duo revealed a new work on their Instagram by artist Kit Mason, announcing their London Fashion Week Men’s show, perhaps indicative of visuals to come.
J.W.Anderson || Jonathan Anderson
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The success of Jonathan Anderson’s debut collection back in 2008 earned him both critical acclaim and commercial success. His label is now regarded as one of London’s most innovative and forward thinking brands. Its unique design aesthetic offers a modern interpretation of masculinity by creating thought-provoking silhouettes through a conscious cross-pollination between menswear and womenswear elements. Creating a notably wearable wardrobe for his “little prince” for SS17, Anderson’s fictitious muse, the designer presented a collection inspired by child’s play. Models wore aviator goggles and crowns that looked like they could have been made out of coral, button down tunics in puzzle prints, bags adorned with eccentric medallions, jumpsuits that appeared to be the designer’s take on a onesie, and knits with elongated sleeves trailing on the catwalk. As usual, we keenly anticipate Anderson’s next offering.
Kiko Kostadinov || Kiko Kostadinov
Kiko Kostadinov studied BA and MA Fashion Design at Central Saint Martins, graduating in 2016. His celebrated collaborations with Stüssy sold out exclusively at Dover Street Market Ginza and New York. Kostadinov has been able to build a cult but global following for his fashion designs, all before graduating from his Masters. This development of a loyal customer base is down to detailed planning and successful collaborations with established brands, designers, retail partners and press. Kostadinov’s MA collection showcases his most personal work to-date. Japanese workwear garments become scarfs and aprons, military fabrics from Bulgaria are cut and rebuilt, oversized utilitarian pieces are reduced from their original forms. Much of Kostadinov’s work is informed by his family’s emigration, resulting in collections that explore physical and emotional detachment, integration and ultimately change. We look forward to seeing the development of Kostadinov’s ‘anti-decorative’ approach to design.
Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY || Charles Jeffrey
Scottish-born designer, illustrator and creative Charles Jeffrey graduated from MA Fashion Design at Central Saint Martins in 2015. His brand Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY encompasses a fashion label and a cult club night, each informing the other. The LOVERBOY night forms the primary research for Jeffrey’s collections, with his tribe of friends and creative collaborators – artists, performers, musicians, drag queens and poets – contributing to the egalitarian spirit of the brand. Whilst studying for his BA in Fashion Design at Central Saint Martins, Jeffrey was invited to hold his birthday party at cult east London venue Vogue Fabrics. After the event became one of the most talked-about happenings in London, Jeffrey began the LOVERBOY series to fund his studies. Now based at Somerset House Studios, it will be interesting to see how the move from Dalston influences the designer’s latest output. Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY is a part of Fashion East’s MAN AW17.
Liam Hodges || Liam Hodges
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Kent-born Liam Hodges’ signature aesthetic demonstrates playful shapes and workwear detailing, communicated through a strong graphic language presented on oversized t-shirts and knitwear. His influences range from hip-hop, pirate radio and punk. Speaking of his plans for AW17, Hodges told Something Curated: “The new stuff is kind of angsty, dystopian – which is where the ripped-up, patchwork clothes come from. My earlier work was all quite radically different, but now there is a consistency. It’s a journey with me and the person who buys the clothes. If you change all the time, it’s hard to maintain an identity. But I always try to make the collection a positive thing, rather than, “The world’s shit and bollocks.” That’s not much good for anyone. I’ve become really obsessed with HyperNormalisation by Adam Curtis. It’s fucking amazing. That’s the sort of stuff I’m into. I watched it all the way through and it lays out all these things that are wrong in the world, but there’s a weird positivity to what he does. Visually the way he montages stuff is great and is quite similar to the way I work.”
Craig Green || Craig Green
London-born designer Craig Green established his eponymous label in 2012, shortly after graduating from the Fashion Masters course at Central Saint Martins. He has since carved a unique position amongst the city’s most innovative menswear designers and continues to earn both critical and commercial success. Marrying concepts of uniform and utility Green’s vision has been a much-lauded fixture of LCM since AW13. Though well-known for their dramatic and emotive qualities, each show is firmly rooted in the steady development of simple signature garments. The clearest example of this is the worker jacket, which has appeared consecutively since the brand’s debut. Green’s distinct offering of substance within spectacle, has earned the label a firm customer base within some of the world’s most prestigious boutiques and department stores. We eagerly await the reveal of his AW17 collection.
HONEST MAN || Joseph Standish
Last year, Joseph Standish paid homage to lad culture, creating a graduate collection that included an illustrated body suit featuring a padded beer belly, genitalia and body hair, and a full-sized papier-mâché man carried on the shoulders of a model. Contemplating sustainability, he incorporated found and worn denim in his pieces, with an aim to reduce the consumption of new materials and add an element of authenticity to his collection. For the label’s debut at London Fashion Week Men’s, we expect a mix of more wearable renditions of Standish’s graduate offering, along with his signature theatrics. The designer describes HONEST MAN as, “using recycled and repurposed garments, shredded and overlaid with DIY-alike patches, as elsewhere large stretches of bright orange contribute to the rough aesthetic.”
Wales Bonner || Grace Wales Bonner
For her SS17 offering, her first stand-alone presentation outside the Fashion East umbrella, titled Ezekiel, Wales Bonner was inspired by Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia. Worlds were bridged in Selassie’s assimilation of formal Western dress and his own ceremonial traditions, inspiring many of Wales Bonner’s designs. The collection included smooth shouldered jackets with voluminous sleeves and neatly pinched waists combined with ruffles, crochet collars and glittering beadwork. Her nuanced integration of varied cultural vocabularies, which has been a signature from the start, remains critical to her work. The designer recently spent a month at Thread, an artists’ residency in Senegal run by the Albers Foundation, where she researched weaving, textiles and crafts. We look forward to seeing how these new influences, as well as the significant support from LVMH earned last year, will impact Wales Bonner this season.
Rottingdean Bazaar || James Theseus Buck & Luke Brooks
Brighton-born James Theseus Buck graduated from Central Saint Martins’ MA Fashion course in 2015 and has worked freelance for brands including Ashish and J.W. Anderson. London-born Luke Brooks graduated from CSM’s MA Fashion course in 2012. Since then he has worked independently, creating non-seasonal collections, pop-up shops and commissions. Having begun collaborating in late 2015, the duo moved to the seaside village of Rottingdean, where their work has taken form around an inimitable use of textiles and found objects. The label is intended to be a showcase and eventually a shop, presenting clothes, accessories, homeware, artworks, installations and editorial stories made by the pair. Their most recently presented project was a three day installation and performance at Palais de Tokyo’s Do Disturb festival, involving elements of both fashion and fine art practices. Rottingdean Bazaar is a part of Fashion East Men’s Presentations AW17.
Xander Zhou || Xander Zhou
Xander Zhou was the first menswear designer from China to be part of London Fashion Week Men’s. In his work, Zhou explores the boundaries between form and function, as well as the unique qualities of the different fabrics he uses. He reconstructs classical forms by providing them with new contexts, occasionally blurring gender stereotypes in the process. Zhou’s collections, though ever evolving, have often been inspired by youth subcultures, combining elegance with a streetwear foundation. Last season, finely striped shirts billowed, with bandana neckerchief bibs and halter style corsets wrapped around models’ waists. With sleeves extending far below fingertips, every shape was loose, comfortable and subtly rebellious. Overall, the collection was notably wearable with a decided focus on comfort. It will be interesting to see if wearability remains a priority for this season too.
Words by Keshav Anand