Antony Morato x Kit Neale

Italian menswear brand Antony Morato’s AW13 collection is one built upon several personalities. Vintage washes, rugged layering and quilted detailing form the characters of the collection story, from bohemian to traveller, and reporter. Each his own distinct Antony Morato gentleman.

To celebrate the personalities of the collection Dazed commissioned two menswear designers and stylists to project their own spin and style on the collection. The results were captured in two very different films by Harrison Boyce.

First up is London print king, Kit Neale. Kit is about as far from Italian refinement as it gets. South London born and bred, his own AW13 collection is a riot of crayon lines, bright chequerboard print and fried egg polka dot. His beginnings as a freelance print designer are evident in everything he creates: “we start off with prints and then it builds more and more as it goes on.”

Putting the Kit Neale stamp on Antony Morato, the designer collaborated with Caspar Hodgson to create a playful film set. Inspired by the use of multiple textures in the Antony Morato collection, Kit and Caspar framed the model with painted chintz wallpaper, pale pink hydrangea bouquets and innocently illustrated props. Add to this imaginative collaged editing of multiple exposures and split screens, and we are given a snapshot into the worlds and personalities of Kit Neale and Antony Morato.

We caught up with Kit Neale ahead of the film’s release on Dazed Digital, to talk mischievous British eccentrics, and studio dogs called Pigeon.

Music: “Sort Of Light” by Cuushe (Flau)

Dazed Digital: Can you talk through your inspiration and references for the film?

Kit Neale: The references we pulled together with Harrison were a bit random. We wanted to incorporate some of our patterns and set designs with the Anthony Morato garms. I think the character we've created with the collection is a bit of an eccentric artist, with a quirky refined style. It was cool to bring out the models character, and working at creating some awesome backgrounds, bringing in a few set elements and do a super collaged-up edit mixing.

DD: You collaborated with Caspar Hodgson on the set design – how did this come about and what were the set inspirations?

Kit Neale: Caspar came on board at Kit Neale almost a year ago, and now we both run the brand together as business partners. We collaborate on a daily basis, working on the both the creative and the business side of the brand. Caspar's work is mainly illustration, art direction, and graphics-focused so we thought it would be great to integrate this into the shoot. We worked together with Harrison to build a graphic set.

We were really inspired by Antony Morato's use of combined textures in AW13, and we wanted to reflect this in the film: the painting on wallpaper, the florals, the illustrations. We think our interpretation of this complemented the looks nicely.

DD: How did you project your own style onto the Antony Morato collection? 

Kit Neale: At Kit Neale we always strive to inject a sense of fun and spontaneity into everything we do. The floral prints and motifs are what bring that energy to the film, which works really well along with the split frames in the edit. We wanted to combine the refined Antony Morato look with our quirky London spin. Personally, almost everything we do is print focused - so we just had to bring that along to Antony Morato. 

DD: Can you describe the Antony Morato character that you have created in this film? What does he do next?

Kit Neale: I think the Antony Morato character that we've styled has got a bit of a British swagger. He's quite traditional and polite, and loves nothing better than his mother’s roast, but goes and gets up to mischief at work or college or at the Pub on a Friday night. He's a bit eccentric maybe, but quietly eccentric.

DD: The film is quite playful – do you have a funny story from the shoot?

Kit Neale: We brought along our studio dog, Pigeon, to the shoot as he comes everywhere with us. There was a moment where Pigeon was posing for the camera, which was so cute, especially since he was wearing his cone of shame because he had ran into a tree the week before and bashed up his leg!

DD: The split frames and multiple exposures create a sense of dual personalities. Do you have a dual (or triple) personality?

Kit Neale: Yeah I guess I do have a couple of personalities! On one hand there is that pedantically organised and business focused side of me, and on the other is a hectic frenzy of disjointed mayhem. I tend to flit between the two. I quite like it that way.

CREDITS

All clothes: Antony Morato

Film: Harrison Boyce

Music: Cuushe "Sort Of Light" (Flau)

Stylist: Kit Neale

Grooming: Teiji using Bumble and Bumble

Set Design: Caspar Hodgson

Model: Pascal Bonvie at RE|PUBLIC

Film Assistant: Camilla Mathis

Stylist Assistant: Rosa Van der Horst

Set Assistant: Lauren Krischer

Clickable Technology: WireWAX

Antony Morato: www.morato.it