Charles Jeffrey has never been one for convention. But his AW25 offering, dubbed I Am a Product wasn’t just a fashion show – it was a rejection of tradition, a celebration of queer culture and a bold act of artistic resistance.
Set in the Dover Street Market Paris basement, the night unravelled like a fever dream – part wrestling match, part Weimar cabaret, part theatrical breakdown, it was a living, breathing rebellion against everything stiff and straight-laced.
At the heart of the show was Bullyache, the artist duo made up of Courtney Tylor Deyn and Jacob Samuel, who transformed the space into a 360-degree wrestling ring, twisting the Loverboy collection into a chaotic, 75-minute, dance-cum-theatre spectacle. Muscles flexed, limbs tangled, Dinah Lux played Maurice Ravel and homoerotic tension boiled over – a perfect metaphor for the collection’s push-pull of playfulness and existential dread.
As for the clothes? It was English tailoring done delightfully ‘wrong’ – think droopy trousers, disheveled knits, frayed crochet, banana peel shoulder pads and a selection of Mallard-shaped handbags. It all felt very debauched aristocrat at the tail end of a Victorian-era bender, fused with a modern-day cartoon, transforming remnants of historical fashion and fantasy into something entirely new.
Then came the Pornhub collab, because Loverboy never plays it safe. A joyful, defiant embrace of trans, non-binary and gender-fluid representation, it featured handcrafted crochet gowns worn by legendary queer musician Queenie Sateen and actor Natassia Dreams. Elsewhere photographic prints of non-binary fit models wrestling showcased the tension and electrifying energy that defined the collection.
By the end, a single question hung in the air: What is a fashion brand today? Is it just a product, or can it still be a riot, a happening, a viscous slap across the face to conformity? Loverboy answers bluntly: it’s all of the above.
Photography courtesy of Charles Jeffrey Loverboy.
