We're Witnessing A Slow Changing Of The Guard In Menswear
Making the move from exciting young designer doing interesting, subversive things to a proper brand that actually sells clothes is hard. Many young embers have flashed and faded in recent years. Maybe they aren’t able to maintain or evolve their celebrated aesthetic, or they lose the financial support they need in the early years, and some just don’t have the necessary expertise or patience to turn an art project into a business.
At the 2018 Fashion Awards this week, Gucci was given the much-deserved nod for brand of the year and its CEO Marco Bizzarri won the Business Leader award (as he did last year), while Kim Jones of Dior took the gong for Trailblazer of the year and Mrs Prada was celebrated for her outstanding achievement in the industry. To that end, the ‘big’ brands are still in charge and dictate what people wear but it feels as if the firmament is morphing a bit, and the likes of Craig Green (British Menswear Designer of the Year, as he was in 2017 and 2016) and Samuel Ross’s A-COLD-WALL* (British Emerging Menswear Designer) have the scope to flourish.
The establishment has now embraced individuals and brands that speak to young people in a way that perhaps previously it could not. Louis Vuitton appointed Virgil Abloh of Off-White as the artistic director of menswear, and Ralph Lauren recently sent hype kids into a frenzy by collaborating with British skateboard brand, Palace, for example.
Craig Green is richly deserving of this award; his show in Florence in June was excellent. It showed that the designer's ‘look’ could be moved on season by season without losing its identity, and that his sort-of textured pastel samurai aesthetic (my very brief summary) could be commercially viable. But it’s especially telling and equally well-deserved that Ross and A-COLD-WALL* got the nod. He is a protégé of Abloh, and further proof that the traditionsal fashion set has embraced brands that play with technical and classically sporty fabrics, silhouettes and motifs. I’m reluctant to use the catch-all term of ‘street wear’, and especially in this case: Samuel Ross isn’t a fan of the umbrella moniker.
“This is the beginning of a long journey,” said Ross in his acceptance speech, “and I’m just really grateful to be here and part of this amazing industry that supports young talent.” It looks as though he will follow Green in graduating from promising talent to bona fide fashion brand, and hopefully more young Brits will do the same, realising that as much as they need the industry support Ross mentions, the industry itself needs support from young talent more than ever.
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