Casely-Hayford AW15

Initial reaction:

Runaways teaming up and hiding under their hoodies: a beautiful dissonance with rich, vibrant surfaces and fleece sweats inspired by Coogi knitwear set against moody greys – and mega outerwear. Building on SS15’s floor-length parachute bomber jackets, the collection pushed a super long cardigan silhouette, layered with a grunge-like air over knitwear with long, adolescent sleeves and tailoring (with puffer details and ankle-grazing trousers) that felt very on point for a younger generation. The boys walked out to a drum and bass-heavy soundtrack inspired by Casely-Hayford Senior’s studio playlist. “We just loved doing the music because it’s so synonymous with what we do,” Charlie explained after the show.

The outsiders:

For the finale, the models walked out with their heads down and their hoods up – underscoring the feel of armour and protection that the father-son duo had been looking at this season, via a nomad-like outsider figure. “My dad is a man of few words, and when we do interviews I find out more and more about him all the time. Going through British subcultures as a young kid, he was kind of always the outsider, and this idea of the outsider kept ringing again and again. We liked the idea of bringing a group of individuals together so their only shared ideal was that they were about individualism, which I think is kind of a running thing throughout the brand,” Charlie said.

Pretty in pink:

Where a lot of London’s menswear designers play on the frisson between what is traditionally thought of as masculine and feminine; the father and son duo wanted this season to have an amped-up masculinity. “I think the reason we chose pink was to show that pink can be masculine as well,” Charlie mused. The long, badass outerwear also played on notions of the masculine hero coat, translated into an anti-hero of sorts. “With the length of the garments, when you’re walking they just move out and it creates this amazing silhouette. It’s quite imposing. On our coats, we make the line of the coat shoulder slightly longer than it should be so that everything just kind of accentuates that masculinity,” Charlie said.

The soundtrack to Casely-Hayford AW15: