For his highly anticipated AW19 collection ‘Darling Little Sillies’ designer Charles Jeffrey found inspiration amongst other things in ‘The Story of Peter Pan’ and created a collection which is a celebration of magnificent creatures – not only imagined, but very real to the designer. He began devising a collection for those he loves, revived by glittering references to Lost Boys, Warhol’s’ Factory stars, and the frenzied ruffians of Lord of the Flies.
The collection, presented at London fashion Week Men’s is an illustrative reimagining of the 1920s and its androgynous Bright Young Things – the bohemian young aristocrats group. The long, lean flatness of Art Deco fashion plates is echoed by dropped waists, lengthened silhouettes, hand-drawn prints and twin-stitched tailoring. There are lashings of trash-to-treasure jewellery à la Nancy Cunard; playfully irreverent stuffed-fox tippets; millinery evocative of Erté; underscored in spirit by the jolly frivolity of Cecil Beaton’s portraits of his fearless BYT set and balloon-clad ‘Book of Beauty’ subjects.
The LOVERBOY tartan is seen through myriad ways: a mohair coat with chunky hand-stitched chain seams; melded with shepherd’s check on a Chelsea-collared trench; kilting pleats occasionally peeping out of skirts; bias-cut on chain-seamed patchwork dress.
As these colourful creations walk down the runway, the surrounding performance is an ode to community and to the almost-sacred beauty in shared ideas and collaboration: milliner Leo Carlton; upcycling designer Matthew Needham; and jeweller Luke V Smith; alongside the spirit of LOVERBOY matriarch, Sophie Jewes, as wordsmith Wendy.
A former Christian Lacroix intern, LOVERBOY presents us with a super chic fairytale as with all his shows, the story acts as a mirror to a personal reality. As the label shows the tentative but purposeful signs of growing up, this season affectionately draws a full stop at the end of a chapter; bottling what it is that makes this world so compelling.
“The tree-tops are soft as velvet, and in the evening, at Twilight, are all bejewelled with tiny mauve, and blue, and white lights. The mauve ones are boy fairies, the white, girl fairies, and the blue lights are darling little sillies who are not quite sure what they are.“
‘The Story of Peter Pan’, J.M Barrie
Images courtesy of Starworks Group
