The Saul Nash wardrobe reached new altitudes this season. The designer was thinking about ski-wear and the inner-city lads who’ve adopted cold weather garments into their everyday uniform, despite not being able to actually ski. “I was 25 when I visited the slopes for the first time, but I didn’t know what to do,” explains Nash, who quickly hung up his skis and went bobsledding instead.
Don’t be fooled: this wasn’t Nash’s attempt to launch a ski capsule. Instead, he positioned the collection as a “dreamscape”, investigating the technical elements of such garments and reanalysing their purpose when worn by Londoners like himself.
Backdropped by a frosted mountain, models shivered their way through the show space before breaking out into sudden bursts of dance. After winning the International Woolmark Prize last year, Nash continued to innovate using Marino wool within an activewear context. Take a knitted hoodie, for instance, fashioned from a thick, double-faced jacquard that draped around the body in different formations. Or performance-based compression knits which trace the contours of the body, inspired by the artist Thomas Flechtner and his mapping of mountain ridges.
Nash recently turned 30, and has been questioning how his wardrobe will mature with him. Here, a black trackie was cut with the precision of a suit (its bottoms had a fly front and press-stud, a first for Nash), and techy ski-jackets came sleek and fitted to form. The palette was also reserved, bar a shiny silver shellsuit and a taped-seamed jacket splashed the colour of lava, as Nash continues to expand his brand to dress a myriad of customers: from sportswear fanatics to gorpcore bros and those who live for the thrill of the Alps.
Photography courtesy of Saul Nash.
