‘Between London and Seoul’: Stefan Cooke crosses continents with Solid Homme collection

‘Designed between London and Seoul’ runs the tagline for a new collaborative collection from British label Stefan Cooke – led by the eponymous designer and co-creative director Jake Burt – and South Korean menswear brand, Solid Homme. Some five years in the making, having been delayed by the onset of Covid-19, it sees Stefan Cooke’s sharply defined aesthetic, mined from the subcultural silhouettes of the 2000s and its music scene, meet the innate ease of Solid Homme, a stalwart of South Korean fashion. Since its advent in 1988 – the same year as Seoul was put on the map as host of the Olympics – its founder Woo Young Mi has drawn inspiration from the eclectic dress codes of the city’s streets, which might span work- and sportswear, hiking attire, or Americana.

Which is why it was important for partners Cooke and Burt to visit Seoul, despite the collection having largely been designed in London, where the pair live and work. ‘We visited in March to review the initial prototypes and stood in a room with their design team for three days to make the edits and notes together,’ they tell Wallpaper*. Some of the pieces, which span leather jackets and hoodies adorned by ceramic studs, utility jackets and denim shirts, were ‘pressure designed’ on the spot, a process only made possible by ’the extremely skillful team Solid Homme have’. Afterwards, it was a whistlestop tour of the city – Cooke and Burt had to leave to launch their collaboration with Mulberry in Tokyo the next day – visiting markets, ‘eating incredible food and shopping for research’ (as well as partaking in local liqueur with the team).

Solid Homme designed by Jake Burt and Stefan Cooke

The collection itself began with familiar influences, centring around three songs they both ’listened to on repeat’ in their respective hometowns ‘circa 2009’: A Wooden Box by Factory Floor, Drum Courts by These New Puritans and Redlights by Salem. It led them through what the pair call an ’American Apparel doorway’ – a reference to the Los Angeles-based label synonymous with the era’s style – a mood bolstered by a research trip that saw them rifling through the charity shops and thrift stores of Maine and New York.

‘Music has always been a huge part of our identities; we were actually both in various bands as teenagers,’ they explain. ‘Our musical finds are something we share amongst our closest friends and collaborators, and we had been listening to three songs bootlegged around 2009 right before we moved to London to go to university. There was a connection between the way the music was made and the clothes the bands wore – nothing showy but with a consideration – we just wanted to remember that time and funnel it into the wardrobe we created here.’

Closer to home, influences from 15th-century armour discovered in London’s Wallace Collection – the rivets inspiring the studs across the collection – lend the pieces the gleefully disorientating feel, at once familiar and strange in the pair’s signature style (some of the label’s earliest pieces were trompe l’oeil, whereby an image of one garment was transposed onto another to surreal effect). In the same vein, in the Solid Homme collaboration, photocopied prints appear on T-shirts constructed like American football jerseys, while a shearling pilot helmet is folded in half to create a saddle-shaped handbag. ‘We just folded it in half and it instantly became this incredible cross-body bag,’ says Cooke, who notes it is his favourite piece in the collaboration.

The marker of the collection’s success, which will launch on 9 August 2024, was the approval of their own longtime collaborators, like the photographer Theo Sion – who captured the accompanying campaign – and art director Bruce Usher. ‘We want people to feel casual when wearing this collection,’ they say. ’Theo and Bruce tried pieces on when we shot the campaign and it looked really natural on them. They are really fussy dressers, so it says a lot!’

Solid Homme designed by Jake Burt and Stefan Cooke is available from Solid Homme’s website from 9 August 2024.

solidhomme.com