Report by Isaac Lock.

Photography by  Catwalking.com

Hooray! Thanks to a new menswear day that tagged on to the end of London Fashion Week in a joint initiative between the British Fashion Council (BFC), new-designer umbrella Fashion East and Topman, menswear in London is becoming something of an intimidating force. The day was made up of MAN (a group show for three new designers and Topman Design), a show from the designer boutique bStore, presentations from Savile Row tailor E Tautz, installations from 14 new men’s designers, and a runway show from James Long and Carolyn Massey [see below], who were the first designers to receive support from NEWGEN MEN, the addition to NEWGEN – the designer initiative that has been supporting womenswear design talent in London for 16 years. Phew!
“I think this explosion in menswear talent in London has been bubbling away at the surface for a long time,” claimed Fashion East/MAN founder Lulu Kennedy outside the show, “but since we started the men’s day and created an outlet it’

s just snowballed. We started out with four installations last year, and now we have 14!

I think great menswear talent is something that London is starting to really be recognised for.” The other thing that menswear is getting London recognised for is a co-existence between fashion and commerce, which only exists in this way in the UK. At the MAN show the business end of things was taken care of by Christopher Shannon, who has managed to farm out his contemporary sportswear for collaborations with brands including Reebok and Eastpak; in the middle there was JW Anderson, who caused a real sensation with a beautifully made, incredibly focused collection of contemporary tailoring and menswear with intriguing feminine touches. At the purely creative end there was Katie Eary, who has landed one of her jackets on the cover of October’s Vogue and frantically described her collection before the show as “William Burroughs! Naked Lunch! Bones printed on tights and tops! Stripes! Sailors! Rent boys!”
The same was true of the 14 installations; young designers with a real abundance of sometimes unbridled creative talent, showing alongside more business-minded brands, with neither presence undermining the validity of the other. So, luxurious, embellished young tailoring from Casely-Hayford at one end of the scale sat next to block-coloured latex bondage vests and shorts with matching spiked gimp masks (and matching coloured cup cakes) from Jaiden rVa James at the other. “At the moment, we’re just interested in being creative and expressing ourselves,” said the designers. “And this has given us an opportunity to do that. We are working on establishing our vision, and will develop our business later.”

London is perhaps the only place in the world where they can make that happen.

Tweet This Post