Sound bite: 'The story started with a photograph from Paul Graham's A1—The Great North Road (1983) series,' explains Several designer Graeme Fidler. 'Amazing pictures of fairly not amazing things,' he continues, 'mixed with my Grandad's journey coming down from the North to London in the 1950s. He spent most of his time in Soho in the coffee bar scene.'
Scene setting: To bring Fidler's polished up, Fifties working class staples to life, the designer set up his own postwar roadside café within London's Elms Lesters Painting Rooms – formica tables, Tommy K, builder's tea and buttered toast included. 'It could be 7am or 7pm,' he mused of the retro scene, serenaded by a live band. Fidler's mixed age casting took a load off in mixed separates that fused the energy of London's swinging jazz bars with the era's obsession with all things Americana. Striped Italian gabardine, seersuckers and ginghams met military cotton poplin and gauzy hop sack fabrications, which fashioned S/S 2017's key staples: short-sleeved cotton shirts, Harrington jackets, cuffed chinos and Milkman's coats in an umber palette.
Best in show: A tangerine rubberised cotton, canvas backed raincoat 'produced in a factory that continues to make every fisherman project in Canada', explained Fidler of the hard-working textile. While the coat's construction possessed a real-world practically, its hyper-hue echoed the collection's sunny, upbeat feel.
INFORMATION
Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans
-
Year in review: top 10 design stories of 2024Wallpaper* magazine's 10 most-read design stories of 2024 whisk us from fun Ikea pieces to the man who designed the Paris Olympics, and 50 years of the Rubik's Cube
-
Sharon Smith's Polaroids capture 1980s New York nightlifeIDEA Books has launched a new monograph of Smith’s photographs, titled Camera Girl and edited by former editor-in-chief of LIFE magazine, Bill Shapiro
-
A multifaceted Beverly Hills house puts the beauty of potentiality in the frameA Beverly Hills house in Trousdale, designed by Robin Donaldson, brings big ideas to the residential scale
-
Get to know Issey Miyake’s innovative A-POC ABLE line as it arrives in the UKAs A-POC ABLE Issey Miyake launches in London this week, designer Yoshiyuki Miyamae gives Wallpaper* the lowdown on the experimental Issey Miyake offshoot
-
Margaret Howell London Fashion Week Women's S/S 2019 -
London Fashion Week S/S 2023: Ahluwalia to Martine RoseThough slimmed-down, London Fashion Week nonetheless provided the moments of creative expression the city is known for – from Ahluwalia’s ode to Africa to Martine Rose’s much-anticipated runway return
-
Discover these fashion brands at London Craft WeekDuring London Craft Week, fashion brands including Smythson, Bally and Serapian are hosting events across the capital
-
Nicholas Daley's multicultural roots celebrated in London -
V&A spotlights the sartorial and social significance of the kimonoFor the latest endeavour of London's Victoria and Albert Museum, Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk explores the evolution of the iconic Japanese garment
-
Erdem A/W 2020 London Fashion Week Women's -
Christopher Kane A/W 2020 London Fashion Week Women's
