There’s always something emotional about a Craig Green show. Much of that is down to Craig himself – you can feel the sheer weight of his vision, his passion for clothing, his quietly uncompromising viewpoint of the world in every stitch of his work. That’s true of past seasons, and here was no different – except this time, it felt like something of a turning point. Craig is still, wrongly, referred to as an emerging designer – but today, in his very own venue for the first time, the monastic vaulted arches of a railing tunnel in South London – it was proof that Craig’s world is already fully formed. The central point of this were what Craig deemed “altarpieces” – the incredible wooden constructions that were strapped to the boys chests. They were wrapped with fabric, and rope – Craig called them skeletal, using them to represent the potential for “stretching and splaying” convention. And here, the designer stretched his own conventions as a designer – working both with and against the hallmarks of his previous work.
The string fastenings were still here, though this time they were lace up tops that clung to the body in a patchwork of fabric. They became increasingly intricate – at some points holding a length of curved rope that protruded from the model’s chests. Denim was utilised too – jeans that wide-legged and high on the waist, dotted with the peek-a-boo holes that have been used for the past few seasons, found also on matching sleeveless tops. The latter half of the show spoke to Craig’s fascination with the nomadic – a parade of boys, heads covered and swaddled in shawl-like constructions and shot through with colour – marching, apparently, towards a “constructed paradise.” As the notes read: “they were released from the weight of possibility, a long-focused horizon is finally grasped and starts to real the true glory of it’s possibilities.” So at the heart this was about hope. What a good time for that. This was about him looking forward – Craig Green was, and still is, menswear’s future. But he’s now it’s present – defining, and setting the bar for a raft of designers to follow in his footsteps…
Photographs by Jason Lloyd-Evans
