Charles Jeffrey returned to Paris with Thistle for AW26, staging a deliciously unhinged live performance at Dover Street Market that was as much performance as presentation. Baby Berserk provided a live, frantic soundtrack while a small cast of models – friends and collaborators – moved through the space, wearing Loverboy in full disorder and defiance. Metres of hand-painted fabric, created by Jeffrey himself, draped the walls and ceiling, turning the venue into a tactile, pagan-punk playground where bodies, clothes and music collided.
The collection felt simultaneously familiar and chaotic. Jackets were spliced and doubled, sleeves tied or reattached, and oversized tailoring was paired with slouchy denim, ruffled skirts, and layered knits. Fair Isle, moss-green crochet, bouclé and worn leather combined freely, textures clashing and harmonising in equal measure. Socks, tights, scarves and cardigans were stacked and reconfigured, making each outfit feel like a personal experiment, alive with movement and unpredictability.
Accessories punctuated the looks with enamelled bijoux and dissected beanies, while tartans and tweeds nodded to a queer Scottish resistance running beneath the collection, all of it spirited and relentless. Everything felt lived in: scuffed shoes, rolled sleeves, torn hems – the performance of clothing as much as the clothing itself.
In this room of sweat, music, painted fabric and painted faces, Paris briefly became a Loverboy club night, and AW26 landed ultimately as something joyous, defiant and entirely human.
Photography courtesy of Charles Jeffrey Loverboy.
