4 posts tagged "Craig Green"
Looking to London: Menswear Designers to Watch
London’s second men’s week is upon us (our coverage begins when the shows do, on January 7), and while the Brits are buzzing about Tom Ford’s and Alexander McQueen’s shows (both designers are new additions to the schedule), it is London’s ever-growing crop of young talent that makes the city tick. We checked in with some of the city’s most intriguing new menswear designers about what they have in store for the Fall ’13 season. And our picks have lofty aspirations. The general consensus was that each talent, in his own way, hopes his designs will contribute to a London menswear evolution—aesthetically, conceptually, and otherwise. “It’s the right time in fashion to take risks,” says spotlighted designer Craig Green. All four emerging talents are doing just that. Below, they tell us how.
Craig Green
Since launching his line with Fashion East last season, 26-year-old Central Saint Martins MA graduate Craig Green has struck an impressive balance between conceptual and wearable design. “Even with my sculptural pieces [like the wood and canvas frames he showed at the Saint Martins show last February], I place an importance on masculinity—although, I sometimes play with it in an androgynous way,” explains Green. Last season, the designer put forth a covetable and approachable collection that included screen-printed calico separates and rubber-dipped sweaters (left). For Fall ’13, Green earned a spot showing with the prestigious MAN initiative. “My inspiration is all about shadows and reflections, which is something I’ve played with a lot since the MA,” says Green. Featuring crinkle pleating and a toile-like simplicity, the cotton, felt, and suede wares include hand-painted prints and build on the ease of last season’s clothes. However, Green’s high-concept edge will come through in his presentation via a few dramatic, sculpted looks. “I think a show should be a show!” says Green of his penchant for grand fashion-week displays. (For his debut last season, he showed his collection alongside a full-on art installation.) “That’s what makes fashion so exciting.”
Craig Green is available in several specialty stores in Japan, including Kink and Cement, and will feature in the MAN show on January 7.
Joseph Turvey
With an MA from the London College of Fashion, 24-year-old Joseph Turvey will show his second collection (his third, if you count his Grey Gardens-inspired graduate line) during Lulu Kennedy’s Fashion East Installations. With a focus on illustration (last season’s looks were printed with sketches of men wearing vibrant trompe l’oeil floral outfits), Turvey’s mesh and heavy lace Fall wares are inspired by his new jet-black cockapoo. (“She’s like a little teddy bear,” he coos.) Crafted in a muted, primarily black palette, Turvey’s collection (which, like last season, will feature illustration) aims to smash through the traditional menswear mold. “I find that menswear has a lot of rules, as far as tailoring, and I want to take what I’ve learned from [those rules] and break them,” he explains. As for the dog inspiration, Turvey asserts that Givenchy’s Rottweilers were not at the forefront of his mind. “These clothes are much softer and more friendly,” he says, adding that “fun” is a key element of his aesthetic. “I just want people to be happy when they see my work.”
Joseph Turvey is available in Japan at Candy and online at www.theunconventional.co.uk. He will show his menswear collection during the Fashion East Installations on January 7.
Matthew Miller
Thirty-one-year-old Matthew Miller will show his fifth collection in London this January. The NEWGEN-sponsored designer focuses on clean tailoring and complex digital prints (the fractured patterns seen on his smart suits and separates in seasons past have stemmed from such inspirations as things he found on the street and London’s Bauhaus council flats). “Everything I do has to have a meaning—every stitch and every line. Otherwise, it’s pointless,” says Miller. For Fall ’13, the designer was influenced by digitalism and his belief that his generation has failed to produce any revolutionary music or art. “I think they’re endangered species, really,” he explains. This notion prompted him to use crocodile-stamped leathers that reference an endangered breed of the reptile. Miller’s Fall ’13 will also feature black wool twill, cotton poplin, and high-tech polypropylene raincoats. “Everything is really simple,” says Miller. “I think I’ve come up with something relatable, that still questions what people believe and what people want to wear.”
Matthew Miller is available at www.mrporter.com and will show on Wednesday, January 9.
Maarten van der Horst
Thirty-year-old Central Saint Martins MA graduate Maarten van der Horst is best known for his three-season-old womenswear line full of vibrant prints, playful, feminine details, and slick silhouettes. But last season the Dutch designer decided to team up with Fashion East and test the waters in the menswear department with some heavy-metal-inspired T-shirts (think: Iron Maiden, Metallica, and Slayer). For Fall, van der Horst will continue with his metal menswear, this time concentrating on scarves. “I’m drawn to heavy-metal bands not because I like the music but because of their extreme cult followings. Achieving that kind of status is a goal for a young designer,” says van der Horst of his muses. The designer asserts that he’s exploring more facets of men’s ready-to-wear in his Fall range. But as for the scarf focus, he explains, “Every season I try to develop a specific concept. So if I have a really exciting idea for scarves, why not focus on that? I want to make objects of desire.”
Maarten van der Horst will show his menswear collection during the Fashion East Installations on January 7.
Arrrgh, Real Monsters!
Next February, ARRRGH! Monstres de Mode, an exhibition presented by Greek collective Atopos CVC that highlights designers who distort and mask the human form with their fantastically frightening, sometimes grotesque garments, will land in Paris. Having debuted in Athens last year, the Vassilis Zidianakis-curated show is an extension of the book, Not a Toy, Fashioning Radical Characters, and highlights such shocking shape-shifters as Alexander McQueen, Gareth Pugh, Maison Martin Margiela, Charlie Le Mindu, and Walter van Beirendonck, as well as lesser-known young talents like Alex Mattsson and Leutton Postle. Emerging British menswear designer, Craig Green—who’s set to show his second collection in London next month with the MAN initiative—was tapped to create the identity of the exhibition. Green brought Atopos’ definition of monsters—described as “everything strange”—to life with four green and yellow figures that vaguely recall Pac-Man. “I wanted to make something that resembled a lo-fi graphic,” explained Green. The designer, who’s begun to make a name for himself with his art-meets-fashion concoctions, crafted his curious critters from wooden frames and stretched canvas. “They’re meant to be a family,” says Green. “So they fit together like male and female forms; they’re couples in love,” he explains.
Twenty-six-year-old Green, a Central Saint Martins graduate, has pieces from his 2012 M.A. collection, as well as a sculptural garment from his upcoming Fall 2013 collection, in the show. “I feel very fortunate to be featured alongside these mega designers, as well as small ones that I greatly respect.”
ARRRGH! Monstres de Monde opens on February 13 at La Gaîté Lyrique, located at 3bis, Rue Papin in Paris’ 3rd arrondissement.
Letter From London:
The Men’s Collections, Day 3
London’s final day of shows featured outings from J.W. Anderson, Margaret Howell, Pringle of Scotland, and Christopher Raeburn. It also offered a moment to check out the installations from Fashion East, Lulu Kennedy’s young-gun incubator of emerging talent. Tim Blanks took a tour.
Ben Kirchhoff went back to his London roots with Meadham Kirchhoff’s first collection for men (pictured), not only because he started out with menswear in his pre-Meadham days at Saint Martins but also because, when he first arrived in London, he lived in a squat in the general neighborhood of the imposing Georgian mansion where the duo showed their new work. So that glorious vista of green trees and blue sky (yes, the sun shone for a moment) had once been his. And so had the pell-mell, headily fragranced tumble of clothes, boys, flowers, and skip-surfed remnants with which MK filled the eighteenth-century salons. They’re now a fully fledged cult. The cultists were scarcely disappointed, but anyone else who’s been wondering what might be in the pipeline after the suited, booted sartorial conservatism that many of the fashion boys have been working over the past three days might also catch a glimpse of a possible future in MK’s extravagant wrack of the West.
They were sharing the house with the latest crop of designers that Lulu Kennedy was introducing to the world under the Fashion East banner. Downstairs, Duffy showed his silver jewelry with its occult undertones in a room that could have been built for that purpose alone. And Craig Green, fresh out of Saint Martins, showed eerie, homespun clothes—in calico, cheesecloth, cotton knit, and suede screen-printed to a crunchy finish—which suggested ancient rituals in pagan communities cut off from the world. The Wicker Man was an inspiration. No surprises there.
Ritual also infused Tom Lipop’s tailoring with a colorful Mexican twist, or at least the Day of the Dead did, because his models were made up as leering skulls. The boys were packed away on shelves and in drawers, a memorable way to guarantee maximal impact on a minimal budget. Kit Neale managed the same effect by filling his space with a huge fairground snake, which complemented his extravagant prints (particularly liked the lobster ensemble). Idiosyncrasy, playfulness, and obsession rule in the universe of Fashion East. Marten van der Horst’s heavy-metal mutant T-shirts had all that.
Giorgio Armani Designing For Mumbai, Princess Diana Exhibit Opening In Mall Of America, A Tribute To Eiko Ishoika, And More…
Giorgio Armani has signed on to design and furnish apartments for the World Towers residential complex, set to be unveiled in 2012, in Mumbai. The upscale complex (complete with custom Armani Casa furniture) will reportedly include a 117-story skyscraper, making it the largest residential tower in the world. [WWD]
Before the Princess Diana exhibition, featuring 28 of her famous dresses, goes on display at Kensington Palace in March, it will first make a stop at the Mall of America in Minnesota. The exhibition opens tomorrow. [Vogue U.K.]
As a tribute to the late costumier Eiko Ishioka, Nowness unveiled unseen images of the costumes she created for the new film Mirror, Mirror. Ishioka famously made Oscar-winning pieces for Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula, outfitted Grace Jones for her 2009 Hurricane tour, and oversaw the costumes for the 15,000 performers in the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics. [Nowness]
Dazed Digital met with a few of Central Saint Martins’ most promising M.A. students to find out what they have in store for their presentations on the opening night of London fashion week. Meet Timur Kim, Craig Green, and Mei Lim-Cooper. [Dazed Digital]