John Alexander Skelton, who operates on his own schedule as usual, on Thursday unveiled his fall 2023 collection with a photo exhibition in collaboration with William Waterworth at the House of Annetta in Shoreditch. A film by Joel Kerr was also on display.
Skelton believed that a static presentation would better showcase the details that were largely inspired by Neolithic Britain rock art than fast-moving models under dim lighting.
He conscripted two senior models wearing his sartorial creations at one of the largest concentrations of Neolithic sites in Orkney, an island off the top of Scotland. The result was a series of poetic images that serves both as the lookbook as well as the artwork.
“Some of them are rings of standing stones, which were used as burial chambers, and there are two sites there which are remains of the settlements,” Skelton added.
The collection mostly utilized earthy tones to reflect the natural landscapes he visited, while the silhouettes remain true to the world in which Skelton designs in — Victorian-era-inspired men’s tailorings and shirtings with buttoned-up details made with modern techniques.
Standouts from the collection include those white shirts with ancient motifs that are believed to be symbols of consolations in the sky or maps that guided settlers during migration. There are also tactile knits, jewelry and embroidered jackets that showcased a deep level of research Skelton has done on the subject matter.
He confessed that it was hard to figure out how to translate these elements into a modern wardrobe, but as he went to more Neolithic sites — this sense that “the people that built these sites were very much in tune with nature and their surroundings, and it’s almost the opposite now” — struck a chord with him.
Some might label Skelton as a traditionalist, as what inspires him often appears to be ancient, and the often Charles Dickens-era styling choice further reinforces that assumption. But he would like to think of the brand as a modern fashion label with nostalgic storytelling.
The brand sells to around 25 stores worldwide, including L’Eclaireur, and all Dover Street Market locations, and is particularly popular in Japan and South Korea.
“When the pieces are taken out of context and worn with other clothes, I think that then it sort of takes on a life of its own. And it doesn’t necessarily need to always be styled in the way that I style it. A lot of the people that buy my clothes wear them with the other things, which I think is much more interesting,” he said.