Meet Two Emerging Designers Who Are Redefining Menswear

(A look from Craig Green Spring 2015. Courtesy of the designer.)

London, land of free-thinking designers, has, not surprisingly, generated two of today’s most exciting men’s wear talents. Craig Green, who attended Central Saint Martins to focus on sculpture and painting but “accidentally” fell into fashion, creates strange clothes that, in the case of his spring 2015 collection—a study in purity, with samurai-style robes shown on barefoot models—have moved audiences to tears. His fall collection, which explores the idea of institutions and features high-tech nylon trousers and cinched cotton T-shirts, is, he admits, his most classical yet.

(photos: Craig Green / Grace Wales Bonner, portrait by Shahriyar Ahmed)

“I suppose I’m more commercially conscious now,” says Green, 28, who sells to Barneys New York and Dover Street Market. “But that hasn’t diminished the focus on craft.” Craft is also at the heart of Wales Bonner, a brand-new line designed by the English Jamaican Central Saint Martins grad Grace Wales Bonner. Her opulent fall 2015 collection, which includes pinstriped denim jackets, flares paired with ivory silk cummerbunds, and crushed-velvet suits embroidered with crystals and cowrie shells, is inspired by what the 24-year-old calls a “symphony” of references, from the Harlem Renaissance photographer Carl Van Vechten to the late radical poet Amiri Baraka to Coco Chanel. “Chanel represents European elegance,” says Bonner, who has just been picked up by Joyce in Hong Kong and Machine-A in London. “I wanted to take that and disturb it a bit with African elements.”

By Karin Nelson

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