The inspiration points behind Agape Mdumulla and Sam Cotton's menswear collections have always been divertingly off-piste – from Lego bricks to upholstery prints to Japanese modernism, and from retro football jerseys to scuba gear to African oil logos.
This time around, the trigger was fear, harking back to childhood nightmares of baddies and ghosts. That expressed itself in hand-scrawled stripes and flapping bogeyman silhouettes, in murky shades of cocoa, slate, denim, and midnight blue. The workwear details which have been cropping up in collection after collection this week were here too, with sleek leather utility vests worn under drab macs.
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.
Hardy Amies presents its Spring/Summer 2016 Menswear Collection at London. With a variety of colorful costumes and sublime for next season, Hardy Amies handles every detail to perfection.
Miuccia Prada recontextualizes the everyday male wardrobe for Miu Miu Spring/Summer 2027, where sportswear, tailoring and familiar basics find an unexpectedly refined new attitude.
At Roland-Garros, Lacoste turns red clay into the foundation of its Spring/Summer 2027 menswear. Pelagia Kolotouros rewrites tennis codes through oversized tailoring, technical sportswear and flashes of electric yellow and purple.
Stefano Gallici takes the Ann Demeulemeester man into the California desert for Lonesome Heaven, a Spring/Summer 2027 collection of distressed tailoring, faded denim, leather and romantic rock layers.
Andreas Kronthaler's “Body & Soul” brings Vivienne Westwood Spring/Summer 2027 to Paris with exposed bodies, rebellious tailoring, draped silhouettes and gloriously unconventional menswear.
Tyler Maher slips into Jitrois stretch leather for P.L.A.Y., a colorful campaign mixing bare skin, graphic biker jackets, cutouts and provocative Parisian menswear.