Every fashion week, and in spite of tremendous talent on display on numerous runway shows and installations, the work produced by a small number of designers stands out for the way it masters ingenuity in the sartorial realm. During the inaugural London Men’s Fashion Week for Spring/Summer 2013, there were very few doubts that Shaun Samson deserved that honour. Despite having been praised by numerous fashion journalists since he showed his inaugural runway collection as part of the MAN initiative for the Spring/Summer 2012, for The Style Examiner it took his latest collection to confirm Samson as one of the most promising menswear designers currently working in London.
A BA and MA graduate of Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, with professional experience undertaken at Jeremy Scott, Samson achieved peak form in his Spring/Summer 2013 collection by resorting to some design techniques explored in his inaugural Autumn/Winter 2011 range of clothes, namely the extension of designs, textures and colours of knitwear and wool projected onto printed fabric in tunic-like tops.
With a nod to 1990s imagery (namely Grunge sensibilities and androgynous looks), Samson also explored the possibilities of layering fabrics and oversized shirts and shorts embellished by metallic knitwear, sequins, and details such as spikes and studs. Contrasting with the glimmer of these garments, the young designer worked fabric and colour blocking in diverse shades of grey, beige, black, white, navy and salmon through¬out a well-edited collection with four sections of three or four looks each that never stopped captivating journalists and buyers alike.
