Carolyn Massey closed the final day of London Fashion Week, and highlighted a key strength that makes this rising star of British menswear distinctive; the ability to look to the past without over referencing or falling into the trap of irrelevance. As part of Craft Central's Reflect Foward award, Massey was given a grant to research the archives of a museum of her choice. Massey chose The National Army Museum and the archives at Sandhurst and as a culmination of her research, an exhibition has just opened at Craft Central, showcasing Massey's findings. A menagerie of scrapbooks, photographs, newspaper clippings, sketches, fabric swatches and of course the A/W 09 collection that was the result of the research, are all on display. Subtle reflections of Massey's indepth research can be seen in the detailing of the militant gentleman she proposes for A/W 09. We speak to Massey to find out about what made her turn to uniforms in the first place and the slowing down process of menswear.

Dazed Digital: What was the initial trigger for you to start researching uniforms?
Carolyn Massey: Looking back I've always been quite interested in uniforms! It's a bit of a cliche, a bit wrong really! I think for me it's the code element of uniforms that I'm attracted to. You wear one thing. There's a set of codes behind uniforms like in menswear that I can relate to. I think that's something I'm quite obsessed by and playing around with those ideas and making them mine really.

DD: Did you come across anything unexpected in your research?
Carolyn Massey: There were these pair of trousers which were made by a now defunct Savile Row tailor. I always knew that they liked to keep the "hand" of the person who made them in the garment. I looked at the trousers and it's all hand-sewn and it's funny when we think of mass-production and fast fashion and how today, if these trousers came back from the factory you would think they were really poorly constructed. However what they do have is this honest hand and in the same way that in jackets you have the name of the person who made it sewn inside, it's very much about bringing the garment back to the relationship of the wearer and the person who make them
It continues to annoy me as an idea. As much as I know that I have to work in these six month cycles, and I have to produce, I'm quite obsessed with the idea of how you can relate it back to being an honest handmade garment. It's a fight between those two ideas. I think this exists more predominantly in menswear.

DD: What would you like people to take away from the exhibition?
Carolyn Massey: I think I would like people to think about and question the honesty of something and where something comes from and what it means. Going back to the fast fashion thing, I think the recession is a good thing for people to slow down and evaluate what we have and why we have it. A lot of my collection are pieces that you can wear in ten years time and I'd hope people can take away that idea.

Reflect Forward by Carolyn Massey at Craft Central, 33-35 St John's Square, EC1M 4DS until 25th April.
Talk by Carolyn Massey on 8th April at 6pm (£5 booking in advance).