October 8, 2018 |
When it comes to London’s streetwear scene, Samuel Ross is the man. A member of the Virgil Abloh school of hype, Ross started A-Cold-Wall as an art-project/ fashion brand hybrid with a collection of menswear for SS15. Titled Groundwork, the debut collection featured neutral jerseys, logo-ed socks and some simplistic deconstruction reminiscent of workwear silhouettes. Four years and several collections later, A-Cold-Wall is a household name of the streetwear generation, rubbing retail shoulders with the likes of Martine Rose, Off-White and Gosha Rubchinskiy. With the perfect timing and a business-oriented style sensibility, Ross turned his brand into a Brand. Yes, that’s a capital B.
In April this year, A-Cold-Wall dropped its first womenswear collection. The hypebaes might had already been wearing the utilitarian belts and drawstring nylon trousers, but now they finally had their own piece of the Ross, just for themselves. Equally smart in design and presentation as the men’s side, the new line featured all the elements that made the brand what it was, just adapted to a female figure. Without a question of its success in sight, the women’s collection is now back for seconds. Functional, weather-resistant fabrications and cutting techniques borrowed from the world of activewear, the SS19 collection named Silica streamlines the usual A-Cold-Wall robust shapes into softer ones. In the collection notes from Ross, there’s even a mention of Zaha Hadid and her heritage of shapes and structures. And just like with the best of architecture, Samuel Ross creates functionality and newness out of forms we’re already familiar with.
Photographs by Ronan Mckenzie.
