Alex Wolfe SS25 functioned to fortify the brand’s mission to re-characterise what masculinity means today.
Known for creating absurd silhouettes that skilfully mock the current standard of masculinity – AKA machismo – the native Londoner and Central Saint Martins graduate’s lookbook featured sporty ensembles that danced on the corporate line but never quite settled there. Think collared shirts that fit like a second skin, short shorts and cutout tops with exposed seams symbolising the restrictions that the corporate world places on its employees, keeping them constrained and estranged from having fun. But in his designs, Wolfe offered a solution to the problem via sex-appeal and by taking avant-garde approach.
A standout look was the chair top; a bizarrely-shaped warped T-shirt made by pattern cutting around a classic fold-up chair, which first made its debut during Wolfe’s final year CSM show in a vivid cobalt blue. Here, it was rendered in pure white, in tune with the colours typically deemed appropriate for the workplace. Elsewhere, the duality of pinstripes printed onto recycled, skin tight nylon told a story about the restrictions of the corporate workplace which often work to suppress childlike wonder and the playfulness of boyhood.
Wolfe also debuted his official logo with this collection – a square peg in a round hole – symbolising the “unusual individualist”. Similar to how the upcoming designer incorporates chairs into the looks, not ‘fitting’ within a pattern is a staple theme of his design opus.
The lookbook, shot by 10 Magazine contributor Josh Hight, was the perfect visualiser for this. The unconventional SS25 silhouettes were backdropped by a starkly carpeted office space, seemingly abandoned, that narrated a tale of rigid conformity fighting against a playful sense of liberation. Across the board, the offering suggested a new uniform for the nine to fivers who long for absurdity in their everyday life, from the boardroom to the nightclub.
Photography by Josh Hight.
