Mood board: Founding his label in 2015, designer Samuel Ross arrived onto the fashion scene with a project that embraced the challenges and energy of the young, making clothes that came out of growing up working class and going on to study at university. Five years on and Ross is ready to ease some of the esoteric angst in favour of a more grown up, smart muse. The collection harnessed the evolution from boy to man, from artistic excess to reductivist, elegant refrain.
Scene setting: The season marks the brand’s first outing as part of the Milan Fashion Week Men’s schedule. The move is part of the first joint effort between the British Fashion Council and Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana to bring together young British creative talent with the best of Italian manufacturing. Even before the invitation came, Ross had been thinking about what traditional menswear archetypes would look like through his lens. His smart, accurate suiting felt at ease in a Milanese setting. The season brought with it a proposition of the classics: the pea coat, the blouson, the double-breasted suit. Standout were a crinkled textured electric blue Nylon suit and the scuba sneakers.
Sound bite: Many designers this season have talked about a smartening up of dress: a move from the sporty to the sartorial. Uncertain times call for confident, clear clothes. ‘ACW is five years old. When it started out, it was defined as an expressive streetwear brand and I want to redefine it as a menswear brand. Streetwear has changed,’ Ross said. With a background spanning architecture, graphic design and illustration his new look is less about activity and more about intent. There is a smartening up of line. ‘Right now I am interested in how to engineer menswear,’ he says, making modern clothes that reflect the times. §
