The importance of LC:M

But it hasn’t always been this way. Only in its seventh season, LC:M is still a relative newcomer compared to the monstrous women’s fashion months that devour the entirety of each February and September. And while this week dedicated to menswear hasn’t been around long, the designers are proving time and time again why a dedicated show space was so badly needed. Make no mistake, LC:M is young but not immature. These designers have been putting in the time and pulling off fresh looks season after season. It was here all along, but now everyone’s paying attention. And London-based designers are taking full advantage of this platform to stand on.

Perhaps this offers some explanation as to why one of the most uniting factors across the more daring and exciting shows was nostalgia. Not for Saville Row tailoring or for the history and heritage of British menswear, but for youth culture, icons of childhood, a trip back in living memory to a time when fashion for men did not have the same emphasis, or even the same attitudes towards it. None of the references being made by designers this season are straight up flashbacks, but a reimagining of images and icons dragged into 2015 politics of gender, sexuality and identity.

A brand new addition to proceedings was Henry Holland’s debut House of Holland menswear collection. The ‘Lad Legend Lover’ graphic gave a nod to the breakout slogan tees that flooded Boombox era East London and that paved the way to Holland’s full collections. But the stand out look of his first ever menswear line was his throwback football strip, bringing with it the bravado of the school team captain. Again the kit is plastered with his trademark slogans. Team lover? Team legend? Which side are you on?

In another case of sportswear re-appropriated, Astrid Andersen’s ‘sensitive thug’ rewrites the rap masculinity of the late 90s and early 00s as one that can wear a lilac and lavender floral print basketball kit. But there’s nothing gimmicky about Andersen’s designs. Her integrity is marked by a legion of ride or die fans and collaborators, the most notorious of which is A$AP Ferg, a long-time collaborator. This time round the pair put out a bespoke soundtrack at Red Bull’s Catwalk Studio after party as well as a short fashion video Water.

It was another story at Topman Design where the collection erratically jumped across decades, appropriating whatever it could get its hands on. Parkas, wifebeaters, a pair of aviators, turtlenecks, windbreakers – whatever. It was a whirlwind of references to times most of their customers will have seen only via #tbt. But for that reason it’s appropriate. It’s a throwback collection for a tumblr generation whose relationship with the past is one where information flows freely, entirely unreferenced and unordered.

Maybe the most uneasy nostalgia trip was Katie Eary’s. Her #cockabilly My Little Pony straddling an erection is so uncomfortable it couldn’t be mistaken for anything other than pure teen realness, served in her signature psychedelic gradients across sleazy silk shirts and Californian skater silhouettes.

Menswear design has long been fixated on classic tailoring and heritage but it’s largely becoming redundant and rapidly irrelevant. No one can deny the effect the climate of austerity has had, especially once you consider that a lot of young designers have spent their entire professional lives responding to this environment. For that reason it seems an entirely natural reflex to pine for the naivety that comes with youth.