Peter Saville’s capsule collection for Umbro is rooted in football but celebrates English diversity. We asked the nation’s young creative talent to take up his threads.
Modern England is a nebulous idea – so constantly changing that if you try to grab it, you’ll find something else entirely is sitting in your hand. Inspired by this, iconic graphic designer Peter Saville has designed a capsule menswear collection for Umbro that takes as its starting point the English love of football and the country’s classic St George’s Cross symbol, and twists into a multicoloured canvas that reflects modern England’s diversity in everything from politics and religion to fashion and design.
To celebrate this ever-changing aspect of the nation’s creativity, Saville collaborated with Wallpaper’s editors to select a group of up-and-coming designers from across the country. We dressed each in an item of clothing from Umbro’s new collection, which features stylish jackets, crew-necks, polo shirts and T-shirts, adorned with Saville’s multicoloured cross pattern (also currently seen on the England home strip). The chosen designers – architect Asif Khan; art director Aneel Kalsi; furniture designer Fotis Evans; sculptor Philip Li; product designer Tom Nelson; Robin Grasby and Marc Bell, aka Inter-national; fashion editor-turned fashion designer Olie Arnold; and graphic designer-cum-record label boss Ben Seary – then revealed what modern England means to them.
The Modern England collection by Peter Saville for Umbro is available exclusively from Harvey Nichols.
www.harvey nichols.com
www.umbro.com

Fotis Evans
Industrial designer
What does Modern England mean to you?
I came to London from Greece because there’s nowhere else designers can express themselves so freely. It’s in the history of the place: a small island off the coast of a big continent but one that ruled the world and everyone can speak its language. In a way you could say England is still like an empire in that it has no borders. People come and go. It’s an international place. England changed me – changed my work and changed the kind of person I am. For instance, I live in a small flat and I’ve become excited by modular furniture. London isn’t all polished and clean - it’s a place of flea markets and makeshift things. I don’t like wide, clean spaces, I like odd angles and strange rooms. I love London. It’s become part of who I am.
http://cargocollective.com/fotisevans
Fotis Evans wears Umbro Modern England graphic T-shirt