Fine print

A-Cold-Wall*’s Samuel Ross is fast gaining a reputation for the most imaginative and immersive runway sets of London Fashion Week Men’s. For the designer’s S/S 2019 show – an exploration of man’s relationship with brutalist architecture – guests donned goggles,dust masks and ear plugs as huge fans whirled dust and sediment around an industrial runway at East London’s Truman Brewery. Last season, Ross mused on the dark warrens of today’s socio-political climate which millennials have to negotiate, positioning a dark runway alongside two long pools of black water, lurked in by dark figures.

Printworks London formed the backdrop to A-Cold-Wall’s S/S 2020 runway show; the vast multi-purpose venue in South East London, and the former printing factory for the Metro and Evening Standard newspapers. Its Press Halls were once Western Europe’s largest print facility. ‘It talks about the industry, a reviving of the British fashion industry. Printworks is such a well embedded mechanism of British production,’ Ross says of his venue choice. His brand’s show was presented in one of Printworks’ main dance rooms, and featured a 30 metre runway, which was sprayed with clay dust and water misters. ‘The location reflects the level of magnitude that I am trying to purvey with a A-Cold-Wall*,' Ross adds. ‘I don’t want to shy away from shows and performance art and I want to refine that engine.'