Hailing from the Scottish town of Kirkcaldy, a place at one point famous for being the Linoleum capital of the world, Neil Young makes elegant, futuristic menswear in progressive fabrics. As well as working as a design assistant for Lanvin S/S 09 and cutting and sewing for Alexander McQueen A/W 08, the young designer has also interned with fellow Scot, Deryck Walker.
“The film Gattaca by Andrew Niccol inspired my final collection. The collection is entitled 'Anton' after the protagonist's sibling who plays a small but significant role. I find a great deal of inspiration in film, there are so many different things you can take away from a movie; it could be as simple as an emotion provoked or a single frame. In the case of Gattaca, I was particularly interested in the cinematography and the director's use of lighting and colour.
The line-up is comprised of nine outfits. The silhouette is clean and stark with simple use of darts and shaping through seam lines, in a mainly cold and dark colour palette. I attended Premiere Vision in February where I managed to acquire sponsorship from Limonta in Italy and Komatsu Seiren of Japan, both of whom specialise in innovative technical fabrics. I relied quite heavily on a beautiful gloss-coated nylon that I received from Limonta for which I am extremely grateful! I also developed my own fabrics through fusing and layering combinations together such as cashmere suiting heat-fused on to neoprene and transparent, glossy synthetics layered over matt wools and cottons. My key looks are a cashmere/neoprene funnel neck coat and jacket and two double breasted two-piece suits - one neoprene and one in the aforementioned nylon. In addition to my garments I also produced a selection of accessories including a medium sized duffle bag and four styles of shoes, both finished in neoprene and patent leather.
I used a remix of Walter Meego's 'Through a Keyhole' on the catwalk soundtrack, the vocals have an amazing stoïc quality that I really wanted my collection to embody. I would hope for my clothes to be perceived above all as contemporary, sharp and sleek. And, to an extent, I also want them have a degree of sex appeal. I’d most like to see Vincent Freeman [of Gattaca] wearing them.”
Born and bred in North London, Matthew Grant experimented with fashion during his foundation course at Central Saint Martins. It felt right and he decided to stick with it. During 2008 he interned at Maison Martin Margiela, where he worked closely with the menswear team and was fortunate enough to be invited to work at the artisanale studio immediately after.
“My collection is inspired by quite a few things really. I’ve always liked the film Bladerunner and decided to read the book the film was based on, ‘Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep?’ A common feature of both the book and film were the android characters, which essentially are man-made adults. The idea of never having a childhood sounded awful to me, as I think childhood is fundamental to preparing people for the rest of their lives. I wanted to create a collection designed from a childlike perspective, and to achieve this I asked children to draw garments from memory. After analysing their pictures and observing their ‘mistakes’, this lead to the concept of fusing over, where the details of the garments such as collars, buttons, darts and seams lay beneath the surface of the cloth rather than on top.
Trousers are cut short and slim-fitting, occasionally with silk-finished turn ups and side adjusters. Shirts are in 100% silk or teflon with minimal topstitching, some having silk panelling. All have mother of pearl buttons. The jackets are either fitted or oversized, with no in-betweens! They’re realised in cashmere, fine 7oz wool or nappa lambs’ leather, some with two piece collars which overlap and buttons in horn (where they’re visible). The colour scheme was taken from a Polaroid I took of a white wall - thanks to the way Polaroids saturate colour the final ‘white’ image was in fact hued with cream, mint, pink and light grey. These instant photos are a medium that promotes instant nostalgia. I also have a lot of people to thank for collection sponsorship - Aquascutum, Ermenegildo Zegna, Holland and Sherry, Limonta, Linton Tweeds, Moon & Sons and Riri. They’ve believed in my work, invested in my future and supported me.
The show music came from a skate video I loved when I was younger as I wanted to use an element from my own childhood within the collection - Joe and Will Ask? tweaked the track it to make it ‘catwalk friendly’. Without pigeonholing myself too much, I consider the menswear I make to be elegant, refined and well-considered. The highest compliment would be to see a stranger in the street wearing my clothes. Especially if they had bought it! I want my pieces to be worn.”
Hailing from the English countryside, Caroline Jarvis was raised on a farm with two older brothers, one and two years her senior. Her surroundings as well as big group of male friends gave the youngster a tomboy approach to life, but it was the film Clueless that instigated epiphany, piquing her interest in fashion. A subscription to Vogue followed as did dating a “beautiful Brazilian boy who was related to Italian couturier, Valentino.” A party at Mr Garavani’s chateau in France gave Jarvis an insight into this glamorous world as well as a hunger to study at CSM, something contrasted by the personality of her work and experience with designers such as Magaret Howell and Peter Jensen.
“Would it be too revealing to say my final collection was all about finding the perfect man? There you go, Jacobi is his name. The collection is a reflection of his journey from the depths of the countryside to the lights of the city.
As I’ve specialised in knitwear at Central Saint Martins, most of my collection is made up of slouchy shapes knitted in luxury yarns. I was sponsored by two renowned Italian yarn companies, Loro Piana and Filpucci, who provided a whole range of high quality yarns and cashmeres. These luxury knits were contrasted with a number of colourful tailored trousers, shorts and jackets, not forgetting the shorts made from Grandma's mink coat. Let’s hope she would have liked them... I decided to source a lot of natural materials from home too - I spent a whole day in the fields with a Tesco bag searching for sheep bones and skulls. There I was trudging through the wet, rainy fields with bags of bones before an unfriendly neighbour appeared from nowhere and started questioning my motives. But it was well worth it, I thought the spine looked almost fake when it was sprayed with colour.
Ost & Kjex - it means Cheese & Biscuits in Swedish - appeared on my show soundtrack. The track is called Federgewicht. I liked the lyrics, "When I hear my woman call, I head out through the door." Does that mean he's running to see her or running away from her? I don't know. The track has a lot of soul and a great beat. I think my strengths as a designer lay in creating the character that the collection shall reflect, from the small details of what he might eat for breakfast to the books he shall read. I’d most love to see my menswear on any member of the Royal Family, but if that’s not possible Vivienne Westwood's husband Andreas Kronthaler or Luke Brooks, another CSM Knitwear Graduate.”
DMD