London Collections: MEN

Christopher Raeburn Spring/Summer 2016 London

The bulk of the schedule's menswear shows are based around the Old Sorting Office in Holborn, a strange stretch of mid-town real estate that has little connection to the fashion industry; that all takes place much further east, in the lines of north-south streets that follow the city's ever-changing frontiers. But walking from Holborn to the Richard James show this morning was a walk back through menswear history – from Covent Garden in the Nineties to Sixties Soho, to pre-war Savile Row and on to Jermyn Street and the gentleman's clubs of Pall Mall. There, amidst statues of portly Victorian generals and smugly triumphant explorers, Richard James unveiled their latest collection in a long underground space overlooking St. James' Park.

“I was looking at people who are so natural in their clothing, they think they’re blending in, but they’re totally not. There’s a real freedom to it,” said James Long.

It was a neat illustration of how little, despite all the fuss, has actually changed in British menswear since Margaret Howell started out in the Seventies

Stuart Vevers took the growing momentum behind the brand up a notch this season. The Lindley Hall transformed into a metaphorical playground as guests were invited to sit on the edges of skateboard ramps, pregnant with anticipation. Save for the grey London weather, it could well pass off as a day on Venice Beach.

What was interesting, then, about YMC's show was how their new season's vision followed that same language. Well into their third decade, YMC are part of the establishment here – but an establishment formed in the radical heat of the Nineties, which started many of London's ongoing conversations around the modern masculine wardrobe.