It takes a brave designer to mention the term normcore in a press release in 2014, but that's just what father-and-son duo Joe and Charlie Casely-Hayford did for Spring. Their vision of the much-discussed movement meant marrying the idea of art intervention and classic English menswear shapes, which on the surface of things could make one roll a weary fashion eye. It all reeked of that old trope: the classic, updated. "Art intervention is not the same as an updating of the classics; there's a friction in it," the designers protested when asked to explain the difference after the show. The works of artist John Baldessari, known for his appropriation of images, served as a reference, helping to make the point that intervention is about giving existing things a new meaning. There was nothing traditional going on here.
Even—or especially?—without the deep thoughts behind it, this was an excellent collection that looked as effortless as it was interesting, and it was full of great ideas. T-shirts and shirts were finished off with a trim lifted from a suit jacket, and fabrics were made to look like they belonged in a winter wardrobe, despite being ultra-light and summery—"heavy" pinstripe was in fact 100 percent linen.
Skinhead style was a recurring idea in the collection: in the sporty, deconstructed Chesterfield coats in georgette worsted mixed with nylon and the bomber jackets reimagined as floor-skimming, lightweight raincoats. There was even the ultra-reduced version, a white T-shirt with the letters "S K I N" (as if the word itself could conjure the style). Casely-Hayford's rationale is to juxtapose the sartorial with the anarchic, a quintessentially British endeavor if ever there was one. And while there have been very radical and forward-looking propositions on the menswear agenda in London this season, it's difficult to envision a more alluring and sharper outing than this one.
