Edward Crutchley S/S 2020 London Fashion Week Men's

Backstage Edward Crutchley S/S 2020
Edward Crutchley S/S 2020. Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans
(Image credit: Jason Lloyd-Evans)

Mood board: Much has been written about Cool Britannia. Artists were unabashed, music upbeat and fashion unapologetic. For S/S20, Crutchley recalled a stuffy Britain aghast at Ikea’s seminal ‘Chuck out your chintz’ TV commercial in 1996 and the hullaballoo that snobbish social climber Hyacinth Bucket created around herself in the much-loved BBC sitcom Keeping Up Appearances. His research explored the decline of the British floral and its function in the office codes of the aspirational middle-class. The clothes had a formal, dressed up mood and embellishment was swapped for a series of abundant prints.

Team work: Long standing collaborators Gianluigi Zoccheddu and Victoria Rickard of London-based Goldeo Jewellery created earrings inspired by Argos’s notorious Eternal Beau dinner service, first introduced in 1981 by the Johnson Brothers. Its pink ribbon bow was rendered in comedy proportions in copper with a single pearl. Milliner Stephen Jones looked to his own archives – Sunday best head wraps in Crutchley’s taffeta and technical silk lurex jacquard were modern revisions of a style from Jones’s very first collection, shown in 1980.

Sound bite: ‘I am interested in what isn’t cool. I am always drawn to pattern and rich textiles and historical references – I like what we aren’t meant to like. For me this season was about looking back but thinking ahead – fashion is the cyclical thing but I want to always look back too,’ Crutchley said. ‘In terms of dressing in a full look – it’s something I see people going to church in Peckham and Paris doing. It’s something you see in the North. Elements of modesty, counterbalanced with extravagance.’

Backstage Edward Crutchley S/S 2020

Edward Crutchley S/S 2020. Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans

(Image credit: Jason Lloyd-Evans)

Backstage Edward Crutchley S/S 2020

Edward Crutchley S/S 2020. Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans

(Image credit: Jason Lloyd-Evans)

Backstage Edward Crutchley S/S 2020

Edward Crutchley S/S 2020. Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans

(Image credit: Jason Lloyd-Evans)

Backstage Edward Crutchley S/S 2020

Edward Crutchley S/S 2020. Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans

(Image credit: Jason Lloyd-Evans)

London based writer Dal Chodha is editor-in-chief of Archivist Addendum — a publishing project that explores the gap between fashion editorial and academe. He writes for various international titles and journals on fashion, art and culture and is a contributing editor at Wallpaper*. Chodha has been working in academic institutions for more than a decade and is Stage 1 Leader of the BA Fashion Communication and Promotion course at Central Saint Martins. In 2020 he published his first book SHOW NOTES, an original hybrid of journalism, poetry and provocation.