The young menswear designer’s capsule for River Island gives camo a pastel twist.

This Spring, River Island’s Design Forum initiative has partnered with Joseph Turvey, the young British menswear designer loved for his weird, cute illustrations and unexpected fabrications. The range is heavy on pink camouflage and beanies proclaiming Joseph Turvey, so it’s clear who’s gang you’re in, teamed with more restrained grey marl pieces and fitted tracksuit shapes.. We grabbed Joseph to talk camo, B-Boys, and what it’s like entering the world of River Island.

If pink camouflage were to magically gain a voice, what would it say?

WEAR ME!

Could you talk a bit about how planet B-Boy inspired the collection?

I have loved the work of Jamel Shabazz for a long time and had recently watched Planet B-boy before my first meeting with River Island. I loved the energy and silhouettes of the clothing and I knew I wanted to try and capture this into the collection. The fabrics were tailored to sportswear with neoprene and jersey but we added some intarsia knits and rubber to enhance textures and prints.

What were you thinking about for your own AW14 season?

For the coming season I wanted to experiment with the placements of my prints and use different techniques to enhance digital print. Mixing digital and hand techniques is something that really interests me and this is something I really wanted to capture within the collection.

Who would you most like to see wearing your clothes?

Solange. She wears prints and colours so effortlessly. Also loving King Krule.

Did you have to adapt your design mentality for the high street? Was it exciting working with such a big company?

I wanted to have a collection that wouldn’t alienate my customer or the River Island customer. It was a fun and different way to approach design with more “rules” than I would usually set for my own collections. It was very daunting at first to work with such a big team but I came to realise that everyone is just as excited about the collection as you are and we all want the final outcome to be the best it can be. It’s been an amazing year of my life.

The 16 piece collection will be available to buy in selected stores and online from the end of February 2014.

Photographer Jeff Hahn
Fashion Editor Andrew Davis 
Words Jack Sunnucks