London Fashion Week: Men’s (LFWM) kicked off the Fall/Winter 20-21 season. And during a week when the world watched destructive wildfires spread across Australia, designers were eager to vocalize their stance against climate change and for sustainable manufacturing.
Nearly half of E. Tautz’s collection was made with upcycled materials from U.K.-based recycling company Astco. In an interview with The Telegraph, E. Tautz creative director Patrick Grant urged designers to react.
“The world is burning, and it’s no longer enough to produce clothes in a bubble,” he said. “Fashion has reached a saturation point where we absolutely must respond to what’s happening in a broader context.”
The collection offered a mix of wearable classics, including roomy check coats, sateen button-down shirts and coordinating pleated trousers, and a lively denim range. Wide-leg, pleated denim trousers had a drapey look with unseasonably bright and light casts. Denim patchwork featuring a variety of washes decorated long-sleeve tops, as well as the pockets and cuffs of jean jackets. A boxy denim jacket with a plaid wool collar and a sporty denim anorak added variety to the lineup for men.
Charles Jeffrey Loverboy approached sustainability by using GOTS-certified cotton and digitally printed denim, and sourcing locally, including tapping Lochcarron of Scotland for the tartans used throughout the collection. In fact, Scotland’s forests were the inspiration for the collection, evident by the denim sets with mushroom motifs and suits with an abstract landscape prints.
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Garments made with contrasting denim washes anchored Per Gotesson’s collection, which was inspired by poet and playwright Joe Orton’s romantic yet tragic life. Crushed velvet, fabrics printed with images from books and magazines and jewelry made from keys and cutlery added whimsy to the denim pieces. Key items like a color-blocked denim trench and relaxed-fit jeans featured raw, unfinished seams. Other oversized jean jackets were spliced with pieces of black leather moto jackets or soft grey jersey.
Denim remained an essential part of Martine Rose’s nostalgic designs. Wide-leg jeans with cargo pockets, jeans with pronounced seaming details and laser printed denim were core to the collection. Stripes decorated denim button-down shirts and jackets, and jeans smacked of ’70s swagger. Robe-like leather coats, oversized check jackets and suiting woven with the names of London neighborhoods stayed true to Rose’s fondness for eccentricity.
Pronounce modernized classic wardrobe pieces with off-kilter checks, large lapels, giant buttons and voluminous silhouettes. Inspired by mountain landscapes, designers Yushan Li and Jun Zhou combined silken shirts and trousers with colorful abstract prints, belted coats and leather separates. There, the brand also teased its up-coming collaboration with Diesel with pieces such as blue jeans with a painterly watercolor effect. The rest of the collaboration will debut during Shanghai Fashion Week in March in an effort to raise the denim brand’s profile in China.
80N8 designer Li Gong elevated Kappa’s iconic track suits with silk fabrics. The sets featured a cloudy color effect—a theme that was carried through the London-based label’s play on pajama dressing, which included silk trousers and button-down shirts and relaxed velvet sets.
Meanwhile, Wales Bonner channeled the understated coolness of the ’70s with a collection that combined track pants and color-blocked tweed suits with denim blazers and trench coats. The jackets were refined with brass buttons.
Astrid Andersen’s interpretation of the decade shone through her use of flare bottoms, khaki-color track suits and metallic animal prints. Still, elements of streetwear were evident in the London-based, Copenhagen-born designer’s work, including heaps of orange, reflective taping and athleisure separates.
And in one of the most on-season collection at LFWM, John Lawrence Sullivan delivered a rock-inspired collection dense with black leather that veered into “The Matrix” territory on occasion. The dark collection was punctuated with brazen uses of red. An upsized long red wool coat was paired with purple velvet trousers. Meanwhile, a red leather belted biker jacket, matching leather pants and boots helped close out the show.