The best shows from London Fashion Week Men’s SS19

Over the course of the weekend, the 12th season of London Fashion Week Men’s showcased both homegrown and international creativity.

Booming with ingenuity, the spring / summer collections looked to the future of menswear, with a line up packed with fashion fixtures, exciting names and a miscellany of new design talent.

As a flurry of new trends emerged in the capital, we take a look at some of the standouts from the first two days of shows.

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The face behind A-Cold-Wall*, Samuel Ross is arguably one of the most talented designers on the British fashion scene right now – and he’s not even 30.

After debuting his utilitarian streetwear label at London Fashion Week Men’s this time last year, his third season was one of the most anticipated shows of the season, and it’s not hard to see why.

A work of art as much as it was a fashion show, A-Cold-Wall*’s spring summer 2019 opened with a crew that resembled Mad Max’s War Boys, smothered in cement and the brand’s signature detachable hoods.

The collection saw Ross present a new way of working with synthetic materials, in an update to last season that centred on human, form and structure. Here, off-filter proportions riffed on the boring side of the utilitarian look with minimal classics like grey trousers and sand-coloured suits offset by PVC shirting, industrious accessories and metallic accents.

It was the finale that really cemented Ross’s shift from new kid on the block to streetwear stalwart. Here, the same crew of dust-laden beings that opened the show closed it by thrusting a box onto the runway – coincidentally right in front of Virgil Abloh – before breaking down its walls to reveal a naked man wearing nothing but red body paint and a patent detachable hood.

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A designer that’s at the forefront of Chinese talent, Xander Zhou’s exploration of the supernatural and sci-fantasy returned for spring summer 2019.

Comparative to the rest of this season’s shows, which have been relatively modest, Zhou shook things up with a trip to the space-age future by parading a militia of human/alien hybrid boys, some of whom appeared to be six months pregnant.

Exploring the line between human and alien, the sci-fi influence was clear, with hospital scrubs decorated with extraterrestrial prints, to angular finishes, boxy shirts, yellow tinted sunglasses and Nike’s React Element 87 shoes.

From unnaturally blue contact lenses to fibre optic makeup and a look that came equipped with a spiral of six arms, it was the prosthetics, designed with makeup artist Isamaya Ffrench, that cemented the Zhou’s sci-fi narrative.

Here, the first model to hit the runway wore a white tee which read “New World Baby”, styled to reveal a baby bump, followed by several others who also appeared to be “with child”.

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For spring summer 2019 Liam Hodges presented a collection titled “Slick Trash” which came packed with dystopian and coming of age themes.

Inspired by Sin City, the designer was draw to Las Vegas by Donna Tartt’s 2013 novel The Goldfinch – a book that follows Theo, a boy searching for hope and beauty as he descends into a life of crime – and Robert Venturi’s seminal post-modernist manifesto Learning from Las Vegas.

So, what did Hodges guy look like in the gambling capital of the world? “Outdoorsy but not, easy-wear slick trash,” he says.

Focusing on an easy, extra-aesthetic, the collection was inundated by leopard print on everything from cardigans and waistcoats to shorts, while flames decorated bowling shirts mixed with plaid all day pyjamas and sunbleached track suiting.

A collaboration with Nineties, sportswear favourite FILA saw Hodges’s take on the chunky running shoe the Mindblower while his signature slogan prints included “Alone Together” inspired by the nuclear testing museum, and a tee inspired by The Goldfinch that read: “I’ll shave my head I guess and get a tattoo.”

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For spring summer 2019, Edward Crutchley delivered a co-ed collection that stepped away from the conceptual in favour of something that felt real and wearable.

But that’s not to say the designer’s signature intricacy and elaborate fabrications weren’t present. Instead, they were simply tempered with more easy-going silhouettes and shapes that were stripped back to their essential volumes.

Think the classic oversized jacket reimagined as a sleeveless samurai vest and archival robes that hint at his love of Japanese clothing.

Here, these loosely tailored pieces came emblazoned with prints created through one of many collaborations Crutchley embraced the season.

The first being with French artist Lucien Murat, whose thought-provoking imagery portrayed a mythological and grotesque world on everything from open collar shirts and shorts, to straight-cut dresses for women.

The designer also worked with a Yorkshire mill dating back to the 16th century, while a partnership with Chiso Kyo-Yuzen kimono printers founded in 1555, resulted in a unique printed fabric that mixed traditional hand painting and foil print for the perfect mix of modernity and craft.

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The work of Khalid Al Qasimi, this season the brand continued its blend of Middle Eastern influences with a distinctly London outlook that was, above all, all about comfort.

For spring summer 2019, Qasimi’s urban nomad continued to explore merging cultures with his travels taking him to the Mediterranean shores of Northern Africa, with a rich heritage of crafts, textiles and colour.

The brand’s signature military influence could be felt in the mix of olive, khaki, burnt orange and sand hues while silhouettes on tonal tracksuits, shirts and shorts were kept soft and fluid, inspired by Eighties editorials and the work of Aldo Fallai, in particular his shoot “...a Marrakech”.

Qasimi also joined forces with a number of brands including Rombaut’s signature “Boccacio” trainers, “The Shaun” sunglasses in custom colour lenses and Sally Sohn jewellery.