Archway Ambiance

Held at The Arches in SE1, Craig Green’s SS18 show guests took their seats in any one of three large dark spaces, a fitting set of surroundings for a designer whose catalogue to date has been consumed with exaggerated silhouettes and intelligent design. While producer Frédéric Sanchez once again took the role of Music Director, elsewhere the rooms were filled with a scent by Penhaligon’s, the pairing acting to ensure an emotive, sensory experience propped up by a calm atmosphere.

A Casual Affair

Not for the first time, Green’s collection featured denim work, perhaps for the first time though, the pieces put forward displayed a new simplicity; here were jeans, jeans that couldn’t be read any other way, casual Sunday-afternoon-at-the-pub jeans that your non-fashion mates would enjoy as much as your neighbour on the FROW. In addition, T-shirts and bowling shirts (heavy on the overlocking) similarly riffed on this new uniform of the everyday.

Sculptured Approach

In contrast, several of the designer’s looks made sartorial shoutouts to his earlier work, as sculptures produced in collaboration with David Curtis-Ring echoed the abstract nature of AW13 and his CSM graduate show. Comprised of rope, wood and material, the pieces, described in the show notes as “walking altarpieces”, introduced a strand of symbolism, highlighting “the stretching and splaying of conventions” as well as embodying “the dissection of a core set of values that are found to be ripe for sowing new ideas and new ideals.”