Featuring unique technical detail such as patented diagonal hinges and comfort acetate top bars, all ill.i eyewear models include a laser-engraved will.i.am ‘willpower’ logo and signature line. The inaugural collection’s colour palette combines matte and glossy finishes in gold, black, white, silver, gunmetal and tortoiseshell, whereas lenses come in silver grey, bronze grey, brown, and mirrored gold.

The Style Examiner got exclusive access to the first ill.i models and was impressed by the industrial aeronautics aesthetic that underpinned the sunglasses styles for men, which feature round and angular frames made from metal or acetate; whereas for women, frames vary between oversized cat-eye shapes, round thin spectacles and square translucent styles.

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For his latest menswear offering, Alexeev adopted contemporary design touches and trends that have been popular over the last few seasons with many other labels (such as Kris Van Assche, Kenzo and Valentino, to name a few). These included granddad collar shirts, bib shirts, knee-length shorts, camouflage prints and a sharp urban silhouette inspired by military and street wear. However, what made Alexeev’s collection refreshing not just within the lexicon of Russian menswear but as part of a global men’ fashion discourse was the introduction of a soothingly sophisticated palette of browns, blues and reds used across accomplished garments such as sailor pants (reinterpreted by carefully balancing the width of the flares), trousers with wide waist lines that became pleated by tied drawstrings, slightly cropped blousons with rounded shoulder lines that accentuated the body’s proportions, double-breasted military overcoats with fitted torsos that created X-shaped contours, and alluring prints that could be found on shirts and almost hidden on the inside of suit lapels.

Unlike most of his counterparts, Leonid Alexeev started carving his career in fashion not by studying it but by working for a Russian suit manufacturer. He went on to further hone his skills by becoming directly involved with all stages of the fashion industry and in 2002 he participated in Saint Petersburg Fashion Week with his own label, a move that eventually led to the founding of his studio in 2004. He eventually pursued academic training by enrolling in the BA course in Fashion Design Menswear from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London. After graduating in 2007, Alexeev returned to Saint Petersburg and started developing projects in collaboration with artists while creating costumes for theatre plays and working on his men’s and women’s wear collections. His growing success was recognised by Russian GQ magazine in 2009 with the Designer of the Year award, and in October 2011 he inaugurated his flagship store in Saint Petersburg.

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Amongst the short list of Portuguese menswear designers, Nuno Gama is undoubtedly the most influential. A graduate of the fashion design course from CITEX in Oporto, Gama founded his eponymous label in 1991 and went on to open nine stores throughout Portugal within the following five years to address the growing demand from devoted followers. Against a relatively uneventful menswear scene in the country in the 1990s, Gama’s colourful and sensual designs mirrored the financial and national optimism experienced by the Portuguese at the time. His reputation was so esteemed that some critics went as far as suggesting that Nuno Gama was to Portugal what Jean Paul Gaultier was to France and Dolce & Gabbana were to Italy.

However, the buoyancy bubble burst in 1998 when a fire ravaged through the Nuno Gama studio, destroying all archives and collections. Faced with this loss, Gama decided to close his stores in Portugal and take time to plan how to rebuild his business, something that he went on to achieve with admirable success. Within the following 15 years, he opened new stores in Lisbon and Oporto and made his designs available in multi-brand shops in Angola, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan and the USA. And, to confirm his unwavering creative determination, on 12 October 2013 and as part of Lisbon Fashion Week, Gama unveiled an ambitious and upbeat menswear collection for Spring/Summer 2014 that confirmed his leading position within the rankings of the Portuguese fashion industry.

Comprising 54 looks and a range of beachwear and accessories, the collection opened with Gama’s vision of the twenty-first century business man (an individual who embraces formalwear and his inner high-school geek while adapting conventional manifestations of taste to create his own style) and closed with a line-up of muscular models wearing skimpy swimming trunks clearly conceived for men who are not afraid to show their bodies. Throughout the runway show, the collection created confident and sensual silhouettes by fusing examples of Gama’s characteristic reinterpretation of Portuguese traditional iconography (namely blue and white tile designs and elements from ancient royal coats of arms) with contemporary tailoring and innovative fabrics in a colour palette anchored by diverse shades of blue (ranging from navy to vivid cobalt) with the occasional accent of ivory, grey, taupe or red.

The intention to deconstruct traditional tailoring and embrace innovative approaches to menswear was clearly influenced by Thom Browne and Marc Jacobs’ recent collections as it became evident in the contrasting fabric panels in suits, in the T-shirts with square neck lines, in the tailored shorts with matching cropped blazers, in the angular shoulder lines of jackets, in the casual and oversized knitwear offering, in the dinner jackets with shawl collars worn as daytime apparel, in the delicately thin bombers, in the biker jackets made from soft leather, in the discreetly cropped trousers that widened almost imperceptibly below the knee and in the alluring coated fabrics with glossy finishes. To complement the collection, and to proudly show that his creative potential and diversity is far from limited, Nuno Gama added a number of accomplished trainers made from printed canvas as well as a very covetable range of white bags with tan leather handles.

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Organised by Woolmark (a not-for-profit subsidiary company of Australian Wool Innovation Limited founded in 1964 whose unmistakable logo has been applied to over 5 billion products to certify that they contain 100% pure new wool), the trip was devised to meet the objectives of its ‘Loom to London’ programme, a pedagogical initiative with a long-term commercial goal: by educating young and emerging London fashion designers on the wool supply chain and UK manufacturer capabilities, and by showing to UK manufacturers how innovative designers can push the boundaries of materials and production methods, long-lasting relationships could be forged that would, ultimately, lead to an increase in the use of wool by designers. It was with this objective in mind that Woolmark invited Agape Mdumulla and Sam Cotton (the talented duo behind Agi & Sam, one of the most exciting current London menswear labels) to visit wool mills in Yorkshire.

As a follower and admirer of Agi & Sam’s work, I was thrilled to be invited to take part in the trip as the only fashion writer with exclusivity to the story. However, as the feeling of elation waned and the day of the trip loomed, I spent increasingly more time pondering on the purpose of the initiative: on the surface, the relationship between fashion and manufacturing seems to be an easy one to comprehend as both activities can be interpreted as distinctive and yet complementary. Nevertheless, it seems undeniable that any sartorial concept underpinning the design of a garment tends to adjust to the physical limits of the fabrication processes available (with the final product becoming the result of making constant concessions throughout), whereas production instruments and methods do not tend to change owing exclusively to creative imperatives. Furthermore, as Agi & Sam are renowned for exploring the possibilities of fabric (such as using polyester fabrics made of recycled plastic bottles) and pattern (namely by incorporating trompe-l’oeil digital prints of tweeds, tartans, pinstripes and other forms of traditional tailoring), I became progressively more interested in the dynamics between designers and manufacturers. And with a series of unanswered question in my head, I joined Agi & Sam and two representatives from Woolmark one early morning in a late September day at London’s King’s Cross train station ready to embark on our day trip to Yorkshire.

As the train left London behind and the green English countryside began to surround us, I attempted to find an answer to the main question that had been going in circles in my mind: when it comes to the fashion industry, can manufacturers learn from designers as much as designers learn from manufacturers? And if a designer is to visit a factory and starts interrogating the potential of existing materials, tools and processes, what are the possibilities to introduce change? Agi believed that pushing the limits of existing knowledge “can be a very positive and enjoyable change for the industry. Quite often, companies end up doing standard products repeatedly and new design allows them the possibility to do something different.” Sam concurred, stating that “seamstresses, particularly, enjoy working with innovative designers as the new shapes that they bring to the table allow them the possibility to create a new garment, and do something different from the routine work that mass production entails.”

After arriving in Bradford, our first stop was Luxury Fabrics, a limited company that owns the long-established British brands Charles Clayton (founded in 1985), William Halstead (1875), Reid & Taylor (1837) and John Foster (1819), all well-known for their luxury suiting fabrics such as fine worsteds and mohairs. Despite being told that the mill produced 7,000 meters of fabric a week and generated annual sales worth approximately £8 million (of which 95% come from exports to international markets such as Japan, South Korea, Italy, United States, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia), what impressed the most in this operation was listening to sales director Marcia Jennings. With 35 years of experience in the industry, Jennings revealed an impressive knowledge of the industry and shared fascinating stories about working with young British designers such as Lou Dalton and high-profile fashion houses from Paris and Milan like Jean Paul Gaultier, Hermès and Dolce & Gabbana.

After looking into samples of fabrics produced in the mill and a short debate between Jennings and Agi & Sam that resulted in agreeing that innovative fabrics and prints can be developed as long as the manufacturer is involved and collaborates with designers from the very beginning, we were shown around the production area. In here, 20 large looms worked unceasingly at a vertiginous speed that had me wondering how it was once possible for fabrics to be made in any other way. However, despite the computer-controlled mechanised intensity that enveloped us, I noticed that workers were still visible on the factory floor checking how machines were functioning and how yarns and fabrics were being used. And when we moved to the final room of the mill, where a group of employees painstakingly repaired flawed fabrics that had just come out of the looms, I allowed myself a poetic reverie: if mechanical looms (which are designed to make perfect fabrics faster and in larger amounts than humans) fail to produce flawless cloth is their occasional fallibility a reflection of human interference and therefore, a suggestion that mechanical errors are a deviation from standardised making in the same way that artistic creativity can reshape our perceptions of known material realities by repositioning their intentions and purposes? Could it be that the flawed fabrics that result from human imperfection in thought and gesture should be the materials used for fashion outputs?

Our next visit was to Abraham Moon & Sons, founded in 1837 and one of the three manufacturers left in the region that can be considered a fully vertical production mill, with different teams on site involved in all stages of producing and selling fabric, including working the wool (dyeing, blending, carding and spinning), weaving the fabrics, designing prints, cutting and finishing items, and selling and marketing them. A succession of large rooms devoted to different production stages revealed a series of impressively complex operations that flowed seamlessly. By the time we reached the business sales division of the company as the last room in our visit, there was no doubt that this was an extraordinary machine with an esteemed reputation. However, if the fabrication processes and machines used at Abraham Moon & Sons couldn’t fail to impress, they also suggested a certain reluctance to depart from existing design and production habits towards exploring new ways of thinking and making, something that could be confirmed by the numerous reproductions of heritage pieces from the company’s rich archives.

After a short car ride to Huddersfield, we reached our last stop, W T Johnson & Sons, a company founded in 1910 that has secured a reputation as one of the world’s leaders in textile dyeing and finishing. Technical manager Alan Dolley gave us a tour of the factory, which employs 95 people and includes a Research & Development team that constantly investigates what can be achieved by applying new technologies to fabric finishing. Prestigious mills and leading fashion designers and tailors from the UK and abroad have used their finishing services to obtain the best qualities from their worsted fabrics by undergoing processes such as milling, scouring, decating, drying and cropping; the latter procedure being offered in a myriad of options that make fabrics look and perform better (for example, a thick and warmer fabric can have layers of fibre removed and become thinner and more breathable).

As we gathered our thoughts on the train journey back to London, our comments turned to how much fashion students (or, for that matter, anyone interested in fashion and design) would learn from spending time working for a few days or weeks in one of the mills we had visited. We all agreed that being involved in the process of making fabric from its inception to the moment one handles the finishing touches was an extremely valuable education. However, I couldn’t stop thinking about the words ‘Loom to London’ that Woolmark had chosen to name the initiative: as London-based professionals involved in creating, supporting and commenting fashion, we had unquestionably learnt a lot on that day by visiting the mills and meet the people who work in them; however, shouldn’t Yorkshire-based manufacturers involved in all stages of fabric production (from those handling the rough wool to seamstresses to sales representatives) spend time on similar visits to London design studios and businesses involved in promoting fashion such as public relations and marketing agencies, magazines and newspapers?

A few days after the trip, I realised that the many questions I had been asking myself about how design is engendered through production and production is shaped by design would always be left unanswered as long as the processes of thinking and making involved in creating fashion remained removed from each other. Woolmark’s ‘Loom to London’ programme was, without a doubt, an important step towards forging stronger relationships between designers and manufacturers to attempt to find an answer. But, two centuries after the Industrial Revolution changed manufacturing so irrevocably, maybe what fashion as an industry needs right now is a Design Revolution, or a radical change in the different stages and processes of manufacturing that incorporates creative and original thinking throughout in a continuous cycle that does not take London or Loom as starting or end points.

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With its attractive industrial undertones conjured by combining aircraft-grade aluminium with supple, full grain leather, the briefcase has certainly caught the attention of The Style Examiner. To find out the plans that Passavant and Lee have for their new venture and their contribution to the realm of men’s accessories, we interviewed the founders and designers exclusively for our readers.

The Style Examiner: To start, how did you two meet?
Jon Passavant: I met Benj through a mutual friend in 2008 when he first moved to New York for modelling. We had a lot in common since we had both been in the industry for a while, and pretty instantly became friends. We’ve shared a lot of great times together; I’ve travelled to his family home in Ireland, and walked through some difficult times in our lives as well. One of the biggest honours of my life is to be the godfather to Benj’s first son Thaddeus.

TSE: In addition to modelling, you two have also undertaken some very hands-on work in property development and urban regeneration. What made you go down the road of male accessories?
JP: It’s an amazing privilege to have worked with some of the most gifted and respected designers, photographers and creative directors in the industry. I learned so much from watching them create and bring their visions to life, and maybe I didn’t even realize it fully at the time but it gave me inspiration to start something. When I met Benj, he had such passion and creative desire; it was clear there was no one else I’d rather work with. For me, becoming friends with Benj provided the vehicle to explore what could be possible, and I feel like we pushed each other creatively to develop something we’re proud of.

TSE: The ‘Passavant and Lee Nº 25 Aluminum and Leather Briefcase’ is a stunning piece of design. How did you agree on the lines of the briefcase? Did you work it out together and agreed on the design all the way through? Did you involve anyone else in the design process?
JP: The final product is really a combination of our initial design idea while needing to work with the unique properties of the materials. We realized quickly that there’s a reason people have engineering degrees – it’s complicated. We worked with a faculty member at Yale for over a year to discover how we could manipulate the metal to do what we want. And it wasn’t easy – our first prototype was forged by hand out of steel. Slowly over the course of about 18 months, working with over 10 different aeronautical engineers from Connecticut to California, we developed a process that works, and we love the end result.

Benj Lee: The design process has been a constant balancing act between functionality and visual beauty, a challenge which I love. Whilst we sought technical help to achieve what we needed with the aluminium, all the design work has been a collaboration between Jon and myself. Beyond that, working with the leather craftsmen to bring the designs to life in all their detail has been a long and rewarding journey, and we now enter production with great relationships as well as great processes in place.

TSE: Why did you decide on the combination of materials that seem, on the surface, so different, such as aluminium and leather?
BL: Part of what drew us to these two materials was exactly their differences of look and feel which give an attractive contrast, but primarily it was their physical attributes: the aluminium is light and strong (once heat-treated) and the leather is workable yet hard wearing. There were a number of different options that may have fulfilled the function but we loved the timeless aesthetic of working with these two materials, and knowing that both the vegetable tanned leather and the aluminium will age beautifully. And there’s nothing like it out there.

TSE: You once defined the briefcase as “combining beautiful raw materials and innovative design with a timeless style harking back to [your] classic British and American roots”. Jon, you were brought up in western Pennsylvania and Ben, you grew up in London. How do you see your nationalities influencing your work?
JP: The places we come from have a huge influence both on the aesthetics of our design as well as in how we make them. Using aircraft grade aluminium to me speaks of adventure and achieving what seems impossible. We’re proud to be able to make our products in America but certain pieces of the briefcase, such as the lock, are handmade in Britain – making it a true collaboration. Since all of this was born out of friendship, it seems important that both America and England are going to be central in how we design and manufacture.

BL: My upbringing brought me into constant contact with classic British design, whether the architecture of central London, or the objects on my grandfather’s dressing table or gun cabinet. From a young age I developed a fascination with beautiful accessories, furniture and clothing of past generations springing from a heritage of craftsmanship and meant to outlast their owners.

TSE: So far, what has the reaction been to the ‘Passavant and Lee Nº 25 Aluminum and Leather Briefcase’ from press and buyers?
BL: The reaction has been really positive and so exciting for us to see.  For something that has been a passion project for so long, to start getting recognition and interest is really encouraging. We are looking forward to these next few months as the bag releases and we meet with buyers.

TSE: Your initial start-up focus is just one product. Could you share what your expansion plans are for the next few years with the readers of The Style Examiner? And, in the long run, what are your expectations for the future of Passavant and Lee?
BL: We are already prototyping the products which will sit alongside this briefcase and build it out into a range including a slimmer attaché case, a portfolio and a travel wallet. Beyond that we are in the design phase of further accessories that will follow up this initial offering. In the longer term our dream and vision is to expand into apparel and become a full lifestyle brand.

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Levi’s first used the Orange Tab in the 1960s and 70s on a line of jeans, jackets and shirts designed for young American consumers. Mirroring the social and aesthetical values of the Flower Power movement of that period as a reaction against the perils of nuclear power and capitalist greed, the Orange Tab garments featured a simpler design and less complex manufacturing processes that made them affordable while not compromising on quality. In addition, its innovative cut and fabrics made them appreciated by hipsters and students across the US and subsequently across the globe in a way that Levi’s saw fit to be re-examined by a new generation four decades later.

To celebrate the revival of the Orange Tab with light-hearted ingenuity, Levi’s Vintage Clothing travelled back in time to the early 1970s in the form of three activities that took Los Angeles by storm as their creative epicentre: the launch of the August 1972 issue of the fictitious music magazine Zipper (a publication with invented content that can be found in print in Levi’s Vintage Clothing Shops, online and as an iPad app); the experience of listening to, and interacting with the KLVC Orange Tab Radio (whose programming is based on American popular music from the 1960s and early 70s by in-character DJ hosts, with talk segments, a hotline, commercials and station announcements broadcast online and in Levi’s Vintage Clothing stores and events throughout the US), and a one-day music festival named ‘Party in your Pants’ (the official launch party for Levi’s Vintage Clothing’s Orange Tab Collection, which was held on 17 August in the hills of Topanga Canyon, outside Los Angeles, and featuring contemporary musicians paying tribute to the sounds of the early 1970s).

The first step towards the resurrection of the Levi’s Orange Tab included the launch of a capsule collection of just a few pieces. On the jeans front, the Orange Tab garments feature discreetly stylish characteristics that distinguish them from their Red Tab line counterparts such as slim-fitting shapes, square hip tailoring, a zipped fly, absence of rivets and more structured, sturdier denim fabrics. Underpinned by a subdued appreciation for quality and design, there is little doubt that Levi’s Orange Tab clothes will appeal to current consumers and will prove to be yet another successful (and well-deserved) venture for Levi’s.

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A case in point of how such preconceptions lead to a partial or inaccurate understanding of a nation can be found in the perception of Brazil as being essentially a land of sun, samba, beaches and football, forgetting that it was also the birthplace of some of the most talented artists, composers and novelists of the twentieth century. For decades, and owing to successive waves of political instability caused by formal and informal dictatorships, and extremely conspicuous social inequity, Brazil’s cultural identity suffered and failed to substantiate its worth to the rest of the world. However, a new award programme that celebrates Brazil’s burgeoning artistic talent under the moniker ‘Movimento HotSpot’ is beginning to realign the interpretative gaze that the rest of the world has of this creative powerhouse.

According to Paulo Borges, president of the National Institute of Fashion and Design (IN-MOD) and founder of the initiative, Movimento HotSpot was founded in March 2012 (with public funds and private sponsorship) with the intention to find and reward new creative minds in Brazil, and generate democratic platforms to showcase their talent. In a country with nearly 200 million people occupying the fifth largest national territory in the world, the ambition to remain open to all manifestations of ingenuity was resolved by running scouting events in numerous locations over a period of 16 months. This touring programme allowed 1,642 applicants the opportunity to present their ideas and fight to continue in the run by showing their worth throughout several elimination stages.

The last phase of the inaugural Movimento HotSpot was held at the University Anhembi Morumbi in São Paulo under the title ‘Idea Pool’. This consisted of putting the finalists through a creative immersion environment of collaboration with curators and other candidates in the 11 categories that make up the movement: Architecture, Beauty, Design, Fashion, Film, Graphic Design, Illustration, Music, Photography, Scenography and Ideas. After a thorough selection process, the winners received their individual prizes worth R$ 10,000 each at an awards ceremony held in the Memorial da América Latina in São Paulo on 31 July 2013.

The Architecture award went to 28-year old Gustavo Utrabo, a graduate from the Federal University of Paraná who also studied at the University of Barcelona. After completing his degree in 2009, Utrabo returned to his native Curitiba and set up his architecture practice. Since then, his work has garnered praise by his peers and critics, and was featured in Wallpaper* magazine’s ‘Born in Brazil’ issue in May 2010.

In the Fashion category, the award went to sisters Laura and Lorena Andrade Vieira who also won an investment fund worth R$ 150,000 to develop a collection that will be shown during the next São Paulo Fashion Week and become available in the 178 stores of the Riachuelo brand across Brazil.

The youngest winner of the night was 17-year old Gigi Suleiman who charmed the judges in the Music category with songs that she has been composing and singing in Portuguese and in English from an early age.

Manuela Marçal Yamada, a 24-year-old enrolled in the Ideas category, was the grand winner on the night, receiving R$ 200,000 to implement the recycling concepts underpinning her ‘Project Botiá’. Also chosen from the Ideas pool, Argus Caruso Saturnino received a special prize funded by WGSN that will enable him to attend the WGSN Trends Day in London and take part in this influential brainstorming event where cool hunters and scientists from around the world gather to discuss future lifestyle trends.

Other winners of the scheme included Juliana Dadalto (Beauty), Lucas Loff Ferreira Leite (Design), Matheus Mayer Mombelli (Film), Daniel Coronel (Graphic Design), Marina Rebouças Martins (Illustration), Francisco Emidio Contente Pereira dos Santos (Photography), Paul Waisberg (Scenography), and Felipe Zuccoli Rezende and Andre Cruz (Ideas).

Aware of how their own creativity is born in Brazil but can be translated into practical results on a global scale, the winners of the first Movimento HotSpot are graced with possibilities beyond the prize money that fund their dreams. They are the talented makers of promising ingenuity whose work will deserve a reinterpretation of Brazil’s past and present cultural importance by many generations to come.

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Born in London in 1964, Miles Aldridge studied illustration at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design and had a brief career directing music videos before becoming a fashion photographer in the mid-1990s. His many influences include the highly stylised films of David Lynch and Federico Fellini, the elegance of the fashion photographs by Richard Avedon and the psychedelic illustrations of his father, Alan Aldridge. Over the last two decades, Aldridge’s photographs have been published in numerous magazines and newspapers including Vogue Italia, American Vogue, Numéro, Ponystep, The New York Times and The New Yorker. In addition, his work was displayed in the exhibition ‘Weird Beauty: Fashion Photography Now‘ at the International Center for Photography in New York in 2009, and some of his photographs are part of the permanent collections of the British National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum.

The exhibition at Somerset House features over 50 large-scale photographic prints produced throughout Aldridge’s career, including previously unpublished material. More importantly, it includes hand-drawn story-boards, drawings and polaroids that allow a glimpse of the methodical and creative mind behind the immaculately crafted glossy prints.

Aldridge’s work is replete with representations of beautiful women in the most diverse contexts, from dazed housewives to sunbathing hedonists to ecstatic Virgins. Even though these women are frequently described as having blank expressions (a perception that often equates abandonment to the desires of men), Aldridge prefers to describe the faces of his subjects as representing states of contemplation. One can delve deeper into this debate by suggesting that Aldridge’s work portrays a beguilingly veiled sense of societal disturbance and personal neurosis. Such an interpretation ultimately enriches the sartorial realm by dethroning prejudices associated with superficiality; instead, the subjects in Aldridge’s photographs embody the emotional and intellectual qualities of those who do not shy from celebrating the ingenuity and beauty of fashion.

Regardless of this debate, the final result of each photograph produced by Aldridge cannot but be considered extremely enthralling. A meticulous approach to photography is evident in the thoroughly detailed considerations involved in producing each piece of work, from the carefully combed locks of hair to the highly studied positions of objects and people to the exhaustively scrutinised choices of colours and shadows. ‘Miles Aldridge: I Only Want You to Love Me’ at Somerset House leaves no doubt that the women in Aldridge’s photographs describe an unrequited need for love that only highlights the complexity of the human condition. As for the exhibited photographs themselves, they cannot make you love Miles Aldridge’s talent more.

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Entitled ‘Hidden Force’, the collection was inspired by concepts investigated in Kwok’s earlier creations, namely the idea of a spiritual adventure within the earth’s current and a play on the energy transferred within the galaxy. Similarly, it included a number of design processes and fabric choices previously explored by Kwok, namely two-piece suits and outerwear made from fine neoprene digitally printed with hypnotic gradations of red and blue, and discreet fastening through concealed magnets instead of buttons. If these sartorial tropes still engendered enthralling results, it was an entire new section of knitted pieces and flowing silhouettes that ultimately added a new and very enriching dimension to Kwok’s creative potential.

Amongst the designs that stood out one could highlight the fluid knitted sleeveless tunics and vests with deep V-neck lines in a palette of black, grey and white combined with either soft black leather trousers and shorts or wide-cut trousers with tucked pleats at waist line. To further reinforce the innovative possibilities of reinterpreting menswear and traditional tailoring, Kwok deconstructed collar and lapel designs and sleeve widths in suits, blazers and leather overcoats by playing with symmetries and trompe l’oeil effects. In addition, his new and highly successful full set of hand luggage pieces made from soft leather (that accompanied a range of shoes designed by fellow LCF graduate Youngwon Kim) confirmed that Kay Kwok most certainly deserves to become a familiar name on the international menswear arena for many years to come.

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