April 9, 2026 |
By the time The Beatles had released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in May 1967, the Fab Four were already on their eighth record in five years. Not only did it become the biggest-selling studio album of all time in the UK, spending 27 weeks at the top of the charts, but the outfit’s psychedelic and sonic journey completely rewrote the rules of what pop music could be. The oldest of the bunch was John, a wide-eyed 26-year-old; George, the youngest, was just 24.
“What they achieved in such a short amount of time feels non-human, in a way,” says menswear designer Craig Green. “To produce that amount of work and be that successful is unheard of.”
from left: Felix wears CRAIG GREEN and River wears CRAIG GREEN
It was this “potential of youth”, as Green puts it, that inspired his SS26 collection, a standout from the Paris shows in June. He’s the first to admit that Beatlemania’s influence on fashion is now clichéd, a reference that has been rung dry by brands far and wide. Though, particularly in the late ’60s, the scouse lads were “inventing things that no one had ever seen or heard before”, says the designer, whose past collaborators include Moncler and Adidas.
from left: River wears CRAIG GREEN and Felix wears CRAIG GREEN
A similar description could be applied to Green’s own work. Founding his brand in 2012, he has consistently taken all that is familiar with the man’s wardrobe and painted such garments with an extraordinary tint. Built on utilitarian influences, his collections swell with bold ideas that push staple garments into new realms. His shows have famously moved front rowers to tears, been lambasted on the pages of the Daily Mail and earned him the Best British Menswear designer gong at the Fashion Awards three years on the trot (2016-18).
from left: Felix wears CRAIG GREEN X FRED PERRY and Alexander wears CRAIG GREEN
Though The Beatles might have been on LSD et al. while making Sgt. Pepper, Green’s SS26 outing was a trip in itself. Staged inside Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers – the national conservatory of arts and crafts – models came in superb coats that were showered in clashing florals. Their prints were borrowed from old bedsheets that Green and his team had sourced from Save the Children and retail platforms like Vinted and eBay. “They smelt so bad,” he says with a laugh. “We had to scan them in and create artworks, but they were quite gross.” What fascinated him was how these kitschy florals would decorate homes through the late ’60s and early ’70s. “Those aesthetics kind of transcended class, it was a very acceptable look to have in your house. It’s quite an intense, chaotic thing.”
from left: Felix wears CRAIG GREEN and Alexander, Felix and River wear CRAIG GREEN
Other looks, including shredded knitwear, striped polos made with Fred Perry and fisherman-style parkas found their inspiration from a smörgåsbord of visuals pieced together in a sartorial mind map. For instance, Green was intrigued by how people would paint their homes through the ’70s in harvest yellow for calming purposes, despite its unsettling colour (the catwalk for the show was cloaked in sand in the same hue). A creepy tone was carried forward as models appeared to be extraterrestrial with glowing eyes, which Green achieved by attaching tiny lights used for dollhouses to cheap tiaras he bought off Amazon. Some had swaths of fabric lodged inside their mouths, inspired by the sinister visuals of Matthew Barney’s film series The Cremaster Cycle. “But it also linked back to, as a child, biting your bedsheet corner,” says Green. “So it felt right even though it was quite a bizarre visual. We were about to not do it, maybe like five hours before the show, then I just thought, let’s go for it.”
from left: Felix wears CRAIG GREEN and River wears CRAIG GREEN X FRED PERRY
Green brilliantly threads these eclectic influences into clothes that thrill. Even though The Beatles, for instance, feel a world away from the clothes Green creates, in their neon military garb and matching moustaches on the Pepper cover, it’s their uniformity that resonates with the designer’s work. “The idea of individuality is so strong at the moment, it feels very weird to be part of the band. To have a band where everybody has the same aesthetic is quite alien.” It links back to his fascination with workwear, which underpins each of his collections. “I’ve always been interested in uniforms, there’s a beauty in them,” he says, touching on school blazers and how they ensure people are judged on who they are, not what they have. He’s inspired by the clothes worn by people in manual trades, not uniforms of power or status. “It’s like a romantic idea, maybe even more so now that fewer people go to the office, fewer people are doing physical work. It’s very rare to see a group of people in the same work uniform. That feeling of belonging.”
from left: Felix and River wear CRAIG GREEN
Throughout Green’s life, he’s been surrounded by people who make stuff with their hands. His dad was a plumber who would line their landing with his pipe parts and clutter the garden with old immersion boilers he’d taken from jobs. “They probably weren’t even valuable,” he says. His uncle was a carpenter and his mum, a nurse, was a Brownies and Scouts leader who enjoyed arts and crafts. It explains the architectural structures that have often populated Green’s world since his very first collection out of university, as part of Fashion East in 2013, where wooden planks were broken in half and pieced together to make abstract headgear.
from left: Alexander wears CRAIG GREEN and River wears CRAIG GREEN
He jokes that his studio in Docklands looks more like a B&Q than a design atelier, where his team have crafted everything from talismanic sculptures that resemble life rafts (AW18) to wearable, technicolour installations constructed from what look like old tents (AW20). For a 2023 collection celebrating the brand’s 10th anniversary, models were cradled by padded figures resembling crash test dummies. These were made by Green’s godfather, an upholsterer, who taught the designer to sew when he was on his foundation course at Central Saint Martins. Such collections were built from off-kilter materials, from his debut where everything was cut from hand-painted calico (used mostly for toiles) to more extreme, cocooning rubber jackets from AW22 that were made by a UK-based factory which specialises in diving equipment.
from left: Alexander wears CRAIG GREEN and from left: Alexander and Felix wear CRAIG GREEN X FRED PERRY
“Sometimes creativity that has limitations is real creativity,” says Green. “The scariest thing is when people say, ‘Do whatever you want.’ I find that really stunting. I would rather it be like, ‘Oh, now you have to make something out of this,’ because then you have to work within the restrictions. Adding value to something through how you treat it and what you use it for is more interesting than starting with the fanciest fabrics.”
Robust materials and sculptural shapes evoke themes of protection that have shadowed the designer since the beginning of his career. Moving through each collection, it’s as if the Craig Green man is on a journey, his clothes serving as a shield against life’s turbulence. There’s an almost ritualistic element to his approach – Green has long been fascinated by religious wear, how garments are put together with “spiritual function” – which gives his work lasting impact. They’re the sort of shows that stay with you.
Alexander wears CRAIG GREEN
Would he say his collections are autobiographical? “Probably. Maybe I don’t realise it. It’s about observing and playing with what a man can be.” When he started 14 years ago, it was fairly uncharted territory for a menswear designer to explore such themes. Green navigates moments of fragility and strength with emotional depth. He touches on his AW19 outing, where models wore brightly coloured plastic tops and trousers that resembled industrial packaging. He was thinking about an idea of “a man made of glass”; other looks included headwear with tassels that dangled like tears. “It’s interesting to explore a man in that way, which I don’t think men like so much. That makes it even more interesting,” he says.
In 2023, Green was appointed the fashion design professor at University of Applied Arts Vienna, a prestigious course previously headed by Grace Wales Bonner, Hussein Chalayan and Raf Simons. “As you get older,” says the designer, “you realise how it’s a privilege to see how young people are reconsidering the world.” When I ask Green about the challenges fashion students face today, the conversation turns to fears around social media, design originality and if there’s even space for more brands to populate the industry. Green begins to talk about his own education, in particular his MA tutor, the late Louise Wilson, who has had a lasting impact on his work. “I have a very different teaching style to Louise, but hopefully I have the same commitment level as she does,” he says. “You respected her. No matter if you agreed with her or not, you knew that she cared. It’s important to make young people care about their own work.”
from left: Alexander wears CRAIG GREEN and Alexander wears CRAIG GREEN X FRED PERRY
It makes me think about this idea around the potential of youth that he spoke about early in our conversation. Green still leads with the same sheer creative force he did when he was straight out of his own studies. The outcome is fearlessly brilliant and totally unlike anything else in menswear, both then and now.
Taken from 10 Men Issue 63 – Classic, Craft, Nostalgia – out NOW. Order your copy here.
CRAIG GREEN: FLOWER POWER
Photographer ANGELINA MAMOUN-BERGENWALL
Fashion Editor GIULIO VENTISEI
Text PAUL TONER
Models RIVER at Twelve Mgmt, FELIX CLARK at Elite Model Management and ALEXANDER ACQUAH at Premier Model Management
Grooming HIROKI KOJIMA at Caren Agency
Set designer MITCHELL FRANK FENN at Agency 41
Photographer’s assistants SAM JUPP and LUI CARRASCO
Fashion assistant KOKPHENG OU
Set design assistant SCOTT THOMAS
Production LUNDLUND
Casting THEO SPENCER
