Inspired by Art – Adversity & Intellect in the Pursuit of the Perfect Garment:
Casual Society and Fusilier London menswear collections are part of my passion for collecting early European artwork samples, which I deconstruct and rearrange for parts of my clothing collections.
Designs in the collection range from personal interpretations of baroque and renaissance prints, wallpaper, designs of great palaces and ironwork gates, church and cathedral design, contemporary art, including the history of embroidery in military menswear, font design and the evolution of print and embroidery specifically.
Finding creative ways to fuse contemporary materials and modern graphic design to rework classic techniques in modern menswear fashion, is a deep and personal passion.
Working in factories with machinery and equipment with graphic designers and skilled craftsmen by my side all day, running up and down the factory stairs, to rework my ideas, running from PC’s to printing and embroidery rooms, re-digitising sketches, all day long, revising print screens and digitised embroideries, is a phenomenal accomplishment.
Resetting the embroidery machines and mending ink that is bleeding from silk screens on a live print-run in a frenzied panic, all in a industrial setting, month in, month out, as far away from the superficialness of fashion as one could be, is an achievement and experience and a joy which is hard to compare to.
The realness of life in the textiles industry and the skills of the crafts women and men is the story I wish to share.
Life in the textiles industry is one of hardship, constant learning and pushing the boundaries, as seen in “Grand Designs,” it is often overbearing, where one’s health and life is often compromised by the shear energy that the industry demands, in search of the perfect product.
Design is about pitting aesthetics against technical adversity, drive, will, ill-health and an innate force to succeed, where the end-result, triumphs and warrants the technical, intellectual, and physical hardship, that one endures in the drive to deliver the perfect garment.
Creative Officer