SHOWCASING his first solo slot at London Fashion Week: Mens, Daniel W Fletcher vigorously jolts day two of the collections awake with not only an eye-opening beautiful collection – but a soundtrack that screams “hey, we made it! its definitely the weekend”.
Bombarded as we are by constant information and communication, monotonous advertising, strenuous workloads and growing time restraints, Fletcher’s fresh take on modern tailoring and clever use of technique works remarkably well and cohesively blends all these ideas and themes together.
Fletcher’s man is a hard worker, constantly confronted by the labour of the day, and dragged into the darker underworld of the night as an antidote to his demanding environment. In turn, this collection acts as comment on the pressures of commerciality on today’s generation of young designers – yet Fletcher remains defiant, his man trudges on, tired yet strong all at once. Classic tailoring is turned on its head, motley hemlines hung out to see; bowties unknotted yet stitched into shirt collars; trousers slashed on the rear leg and hem, exposing flesh; binding ropes holding seams together. A perfect uniform for the night’s end.
Key winning pieces from Daniel’s hard-working wardrobe include the buttery soft longline leather macs, rope and chain detail silk shirts and the covetable gender shifting cropped knitted tanks.
Fletchers exciting, well crafted and cohesive collection is driven by an energetic catwalk soundtrack from none only than Tiesto and JLO leaving the fashion set attending the 9am show breakfast slot already finished with work for the day and ready to skip straight to the cocktail hour.
by Calvin Baillie