Stefan Cooke and his partner Jake Burt have been wanting to shed the emerging designer tag, and their spring 2021 collection takes an even further step from the previous season.
There are a lot more new iterations of men’s wardrobe staples – coats, leather jackets, blazers, and shirts – that fit more realistic body shapes this time than the narrow silhouettes of yore.
Elements like brass buttons on tailoring pieces and floral emblems on trousers and sweaters widened the brand’s visual identity beyond its bestselling lattice-knit sweaters and button-strap bags. Loafers and boots have also been added to the line sheet for the first time.
“We have had time to reflect and refine things. We want to design in a way that people would take us seriously. … It feels a bit grown up, feels like its an actual brand,” Cooke said in the showroom.
That said, there are still plenty of fun pieces for fashion lovers such as chainmail vests with colorful stripe patterns that nod to Cooke’s Central Saint Martins MA graduate collection; screen-printed jersey tops made a day before the shoot, which Cooke said it added a sense spontaneity to the collection; hand-knitted crochet vests and sweatshirts with zippers; and 3D-effect leather headbands made by French product designer Jacques-Elie Ribeyron.
Burt said the idea behind the collection comes from family heirlooms, stuff that has real value to it. “You might inherit the most gorgeous hunting jacket from generations-old but at the same time, you might just have this really amazing band T-shirt from your mother. They are both valuable. Like all the crotched pieces. All of these are hand made, it’s almost like the idea of your grandmother giving you a jumper, but instead, it feels very modern, because it got a zipper on it,” he added.