London looks to Charles Jeffrey Loverboy as an orchestrator and impresario of the feelings of his generation. When he pulls off his spectacular immersive shows, like last season’s frenetic Weimar Republic club performance, it builds huge anticipation for his next act. Well, this time the Loverboy reading of collective confusion of the moment was literally to retreat to a place of reading and wisdom—the British Library—and present a show that thought about the fractured consciousness of “overburdened hearts and minds.” Or, really, the struggle to stay sane in a world that has gone mad.
“The library is a great equalizer; anyone can come here and be armed with knowledge,” he said later. He led the show himself, reading from a passage by Dylan Thomas as he walked a runway installed around the library’s atrium. Two further readings came later, first by the young London poet Wilson Oryema, with the last word being given to Helene Selam Kleih, the activist and consciousness-raiser who writes poignantly and powerfully on the hidden issues around male mental health.
The collection referenced another time when young people’s culture reflected a general societal breakdown—’70s punk and its pop-culture early-’80s aftermath. With incredible face-painting by Lucy Bridge and headwear by John Vial, the retro echoes were taken to a new level of expression. Yet somehow, this show about emotional wreckage never tipped into any sense of dystopian despair. Jeffrey’s colorful, spontaneous hand-painted prints—literally his own signature—attest to the fact that, for all the stress and strain, he’s an optimist at heart.
This show also said that he is a focused businessperson, and he wants the world to see it. Jeffrey has put a lot of work into defining his brand, and he used the format of a regular runway show to spell out the offering: cheerful knitwear, continuations of Loverboy tartans, accessible jersey separates in scribbly patterns, commercial heart-print blouses. In a time of “uncertainty“ writ large across this Brexit-riven society, it’s reassuring to see someone keeping his head about where he’s going.
