Craig Green Shows Strength In Emotion With FW19 Collection

Returning to London Fashion Week: Men’s following last season’s appearance as guest designer at Pitti Uomo 94, Craig Green continued to update and innovate his approach to workwear. This season’s show notes described the Fall/Winter 2019 collection as showing how “Green’s nomadic men have begun to disband and gradually discover their individual power.” The individuality of the characters was referenced in the color blocked looks sent down the catwalk, beginning with black and encompassing tones of teal and dark orange.

The centre-piece of the collection was a rainbow of semi-translucent plastic looks designed to replicate protective packaging. Speaking backstage after the show, Green explained that the collection began with “thinking about a man made of glass, and that idea of fragility and how emotion doesn’t mean weakness. It can also mean strength.” Discussing the techniques used for the plastic outfits, Green continued that “it’s just bin liner but its obsessively elasticated which makes it look like bubble wrap. I like that something so light and so throwaway can be so protective.”

“That idea of fragility and how emotion doesn’t mean weakness. It can also mean strength.”

Green’s longstanding influence from workwear was clear throughout the collection — which also included a new military-inspired Grenson collaboration — as the designer took plaid prints and reworked them into flowing kaftans with slits across the body. Plaid was chosen due to its status as arguably the most ubiquitous workwear pattern and, as Green explained, because it “meant so many things to so many people.”

Another key theme in the collection was the series of jackets that closed the show. Each one came complete with an image on the back, made up of “collages of multiple cultural references of scenes.” Despite being some of the focal pieces in the collection, these coats barely translate to the official catwalk images of the show. “I liked the idea that you had to be at the show to see those images,” Green explained, “you couldn’t see them from the front, everything is so front-facing now and only people that came to see it will see it.”

You can take a look at backstage images from Craig Green’s Fall/Winter 2019 show in the gallery above, and for more London Fashion Week: Men’s coverage, get an up-close look at Kiko Kostadinov’s latest collection.