WARDROBE, PLEASE GROW OUT OF CONTROL.

I want my wardrobe to take over my entire living space. I’m not talking socks in the butter dish and ties in the marmalade but rather a sense of glorious mis-matchery, my clothes becoming an almost subconscious choice, integrated with my living space (if that makes ANY sense). I used to think it was silly for men to have too many clothes; and the longer I examine men’s style, the more I believe we are mis-fed with contradictory fashion advice. Some people tell you to edit down, create a working wardrobe, buy only what’s neccessary; but in my experience, it’s a mean-spirited, boring way to live when life’s too short. I want chaos. THE BEST-DRESSED GUYS I KNOW (more on that very, very soon) all have sprawling, evolving, bought-on-a-whim wardrobes.

My messy wardrobe, yesterday.

An order of sorts is needed; I want things to be categorised in one place, but I think thinking about what I wear too much, being too calculated, often results in total FAIL. Fail for me, fail for my clothes. I keep adding things like a recipe, like George’s Marvellous Medicine; it often feels like this beg-steal-borrow approach, acquiring rather than just buying, inheriting, borrowing.

Somewhere in there: b Store shoes, Gasius t-shirt, vintage Laura Ashley trousers, Cheaney brogues, an Edifice trench.

I used to have a real complex with buying just ‘designed’ pieces and wearing them in the context the designers wanted me to. It felt like cheating to buy bits of womenswear, customise things myself (dyeing, re-sizing, cutting), or combine non-fashion items like the workwear jumpsuits and bags I talked about recently.

But in my analysis of stylish guys over the past year or two, it’s just a key component in everything they do. A model on a recent shoot had the most amazing necklace, a wooden deer’s head and a giant metal key. The former, a Christmas decoration looped to a shoe string; the latter, a toy spray painted gold. Worn with sample-sale McQueen and H&M. All of this is what I want to investigate; who needs wardrobe minimalism when you can make your own jewellery or swap clothes for free?

Bags, in bags, by a bed.

It’s also more pertinent given my recent PERSONAL ORDERS with designers. It’s impossible to calculate exactly what I’ll be wearing and how I’ll be wearing it, which makes whim-purchases the only option. The burgeoning list of Carolyn’s cape, Carola’s shirt and trousers, Omar’s shearling-collar jacket and Martine’s padded shirt just got added to with Lou Dalton’s jodphurs, denim and velvet shirt and waxed jacket. Perhaps they won’t go together, perhaps they will, but I’ve stopped worrying and learned to love the chaos.

BRIGHT LIKE NEON LOVE.

Maybe I’ve been listening to too much Cut Copy (I have), but the title of their album just sprung to mind when I found these press day images on my laptop of PETAR PETROV‘s wonderous a/w 09 collection.

So what looked like by-the-numbers PETROV on a catwalk (and even that’s a thing of wonder) up close appears to be much more nuanced. Navy and pink gloves in perfect leather. A powder-pink shirt under a hot pink knit. A FEW THINGS IN CHARTREUSE. Even CHARTREUSE SHOES, which you would be looking at now had my camera not died. Imagine them like this: similar to Raf’s S/S 09 Doctor Martens, in softer matte leather, and NEON. I’ve been toying with the idea of HEAD TO TOE NEON (monochrome, naturally) since Topman Design’s neon tracksuits this season, which of course sold out. It’s also something Carola Euler picked up on for her A/W 09 range, and of course Calvin Klein Collection S/S 09 as immortalised in about a thousand Spring biannuals.

But the idea of doing it in winter, against crisp whites… well, A/W clothes do go on sale in the height of Summer. That’s about justification enough for me.

“ACCESSORISE ALL AREAS”.

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS IS ALL MEN’S JEWELLERY? FROM THE HIGH STREET??

Well, it’s not hoop earrings or a metallic Gareth Pugh claw. But yes, following my gander at Topman Design A/W 09 I was pleasantly shocked to discover their jewellery offering for next season at the Arcadia Press Day. My love of metallic bits should be well-known by now; whilst I prefer independent designers like Hannah Martin‘s work, it’s an astounding sign of how far the mainstream boundaries of men’s fashion have come.

And pleasingly bonkers too; an adequate way of describing the way I looked wearing this AMAZING FEATHERED NAVAJO-STYLE NECKPIECE. Multicoloured wooden cameras, huge tweed corsage brooches, strands of neon beads, a purple pocket watch… some of the other ideas floating round Topman’s pop-culture emporium. It really was the proverbial ALADDIN’S CAVE of craziness and looked, if anything, more statement than the nearby ‘freedom’ at Topshop range. The golden bull’s heads with feathers in their mouths were also pretty. Everything big, everything glitzy; the kind of jewellery you’d base an entire outfit around.

If Topman can get the “average guy on the street” (I really need a more adequate term for this) wearing this kind of crazy accessory, then hopefully widespread acknowledgement of the role of jewellery in men’s fashion can’t be far behind.

One small step for jewellery… one giant leap for MENSWEAR!

AWFUL PHOTOS, BUT LOVELY BACKPACKS.

So MENSWEAR is supposed to be an ‘evolving men’s fashion blog’, but I never expected it to have such a bent towards BACKPACKS and JEWELLERY as it’s worked out. Is the man to blame for this TOPMAN’S GORDON RICHARDSON? I’m only pinning the blame because at yesterday’s ARCADIA A/W 09/10 press day, the bloody things popped up everywhere. PROVOKING MENSWEAR TO ASK, ‘WHY CAN’T WE HAVE THEM NOW?’.

I have to admit, I’m a bit of a Topman freak. As a weekend stopoff as a teenager, it fostered my love of clothes (and probably a whole nation’s), providing me with burgundy combat trousers, knuckle dusters, neon knitwear and tweed coats. In that order, actually. Each TOPMAN DESIGN collection is something to look forward to, often as thought-out and divisive as the other designers shown at MAN. Whilst sober on the catwalk, up close this was much more personable with some back-bag-delights:

WOOL FELT! Leather trims! Little bits hanging off them! PLUS: Topman’s EXTRA FLOOR later this year will house concessions from big-name labels like BILL AMBERG. Meaning more things like this to come…

Coated cotton with a herringbone print. Nicely quilted inside…

Ooh. A RAUNCHY pair of LEATHER TROUSERS!

It’s got a ruddy MOUNTAIN PRINT ON IT!

A SORT OF PRESSED LEATHER PARKA. Reminds me of Givenchy S/S 09 men’s. If it fits well, I’ll be buying one. SWEAT-TASTIC.

A CARABINER CLIP belt! They’ve really taken that mountaineering theme and run with it, haven’t they?

More TOPMAN action later. ‘Watch this space’.

BEHIND THE SCENES WITH PETE PERRETT.

There is (or was, because I haven’t been in for about two weeks) an extraordinary jacket in the window of b Store. Sort of like a jacket with a backpack attached; it turned out to be a jacket that you could attach to your back using internal straps, to create a totally odd silhouette. What’s underrated about b is the way they stock designers with separate, very definable aesthetics (think Peter Jensen, Damir Doma, Bernhard or SOAR for example). This piece seemed completely out of the blue and like nobody’s work I’d seen before in there. The culprit? Step forward young designer PETE PERRETT, a new name for the store and one they’ll be carrying through to A/W 09.

PETE PERRETT: graduate collection

Shirts that appear like parkas. Parkas made out of silk. Side-darted cropped trousers. Shirts that become ‘under-trousers’. Currently working with SOPHIE HULME after graduating from Kingston, PETE’s work is highly impressive and he kindly allowed us not only an interview (to discover all the functionality and process behind some of these pieces) but a look at the sketches and concepts behind his work. Fine and fitting for a designer WHO HAS EVEN BEEN INFLUENCED BY HESTON BLUMENTHAL. Zeitgeist-tastic. Each piece is designed to evolve, but is well-considered, well-tailored and with an enviable aesthetic. If you’ve not seen it yet in person then you’re in for a treat.

MENSWEAR: How did you get started on designing?
Pete Perrett: I was fascinated by the industry.  Designs are always resolved, which means you can see an idea from concept to conclusion, I thought that would be really satisfying.

MENSWEAR: Lots of people are talking about functionality/’reversability’ in garments now (i.e. Junya Watanabe’s recent shows); perhaps even as an antidote to the credit crunch. Why did you create multi-functioning garments?
Pete Perrett: I love reversible garments, they demonstrate thoroughness in both design and cutting, especially in the case of Watanabe.  I do not think it is necessarily an expression of good value for money as much as an exploration of technique and process.  For me, I liked the idea of the hybrid.  In my graduate collection I looked at Heston Blumenthal, the chef behind ‘bacon & egg ice cream’ and ‘sardine on toast sorbet’. He takes recognised, familiar ingredients and manipulates them into radically new dishes.  I wanted to do this with clothes.  The ruckstraps inside jackets were an example of how Blumenthal’s work informed my own, the idea of an unexpected ingredient hidden inside the jacket. It was about combining garment details like ingredients, so in the end you could effectively write a recipe for each design.

MENSWEAR: You’ve graduated and are selling pieces in b, do you have any plans or a strategy for what’s next?
Pete Perrett: I want to work in the most hands on environment possible.  I want to learn as much as I can about design, cutting, fabrics and garment construction, I do not think I would ever feel comfortable designing something I could not realise in 3D.  I have been working with Sophie Hulme since graduating last July, her work always interested me at college and we seem to have a very similar attitude towards design.  I am also doing a capsule Autumn/Winter collection that will be selling exclusively in b Store.

MENSWEAR: What other designers (or things in general) inspire you?
Pete Perrett: I am inspired by repetition, uniformity and evolution, also objects that have become the industry standard – a light switch, a brick, a milk bottle or a door handle.  It particulary interests me how these things have evolved to become so generic, in terms of fashion it might be the generic shoe or shirt or cap.  For me as a designer these pieces will always be the starting point for new garments – a subject open to abstraction. I spent a summer interning with Aitor Throup and I thought his work was amazing, every detail was so painstakingly considered I greatly admired his patience and originality.

Sketches from Pete’s first collection:

Design specs, showing the functionality- concealed hoods and “those” rucksack-straps

“THOSE” PRADA SHOES.

A sneaker tongue tucked into a smart lace-up. A classic brogue covered in hand-attached studs. BLIMEY. Is it just me, or is BOWSER looking like a viable style icon?

Thanks to Celia for being my eyes at the Prada A/W 09 press day when I forget my camera. And thank you, Mrs. P, for two more reasons to buy brown brogues. Nice leather sweaters too!