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Remember to Compliment
Casely-Hayford is the new design venture by father and son duo Joe and Charlie Casely-Hayford, currently leading the way in the modern menswear stakes.
Joel Casely-Hayford
Tell me about your initial days as a designer, after leaving St Martins in the late '70s? It's funny, but like my son Charlie, I developed new projects alongside my studies. I sold my collection to shops on the Kings Road and places like the legendary DEMOB in Soho. By the time I left St Martins I had already created links with a number of influential shops, I was offered a consignment of used Second World War tents and began ripping them apart to make distressed clothes, which ran counter to the mainstream statements of the time. They were old and dirty; I was forced to wash them industrially and began to make a name for myself. I was contacted by a number of bands and started styling and doing commissions. Later I was asked by Island Records to adapt the image of visiting American artists to the taste levels of the UK market, or to give new or not so cool bands a bit more edge. Eventually I was approached by The Clash and designed some stage clothes for them. U2 were big Clash fans and invited me to design all costumes for their Zoopra and Achtung Baby albums and world tour.
Looking back, what have been your most memorable or significant menswear innovations so far?
i-D has captured many of them over the years. From three-dimensional lapels, exposed seams to many other examples of deconstructed tailoring in the '80s. Oversized distorted knitwear in the '90s, buckshot brogues, and the fusion between sportswear and formal clothing. In 1996 I was the subject of a retrospective exhibition of plain white shirt designs in Tokyo.
Did you actively encourage Charlie to become interested in fashion when he was younger?
No, not at all. It's something he developed himself. There was definitely a moment, aged 10, when he ended up at a super academic school wearing wire frame spectacles, was as skinny as a rake and had a flat top hairdo. But by 13, after having words with him, he began to move on and evolved his own unique style. For a while I thought Charlie would pursue a different career path from me, but it's been rewarding watching him and my daughter Alice grow creatively over the years.
What prompted this new father-son venture?
I still feel as excited as when I first walked through the doors of St. Martins. I don't feel like I've created my greatest work yet. It seemed natural to take this step with Charlie who has been a confidant and collaborator for some time: I have a great deal of respect for Charlie's discipline and focus. His input isn't always that of the young avant-garde experimentalist. He is often conservative and pensive and approaches things from a classical standpoint. So it isn't predetermined that I stand for tradition and he innovation. We have a very clear idea of the form that our collection will take. We believe that no other brand can capture the duality of English sartorialism and British Anarchy, and celebrate the beauty of high art and street culture simultaneously. We aim to offer a new and considered vision of English style in the 21" century.
You talked to me in the past about having a 'slow burn' approach to menswear, rather than leaping about from trend to trend, across season to season, as various other designers do...
I am a great believer in 'Slow Fashion’. Today like the economy, the currency of designer fashion has been significantly devalued. Ideas like clothes have become far too disposable. I believe in a more considered approach to design. The idea of function in formal clothing is very interesting to me. The fusion between formal and sportswear seems to be: a logical progression. Solving new equations, which arise from the changing cultural environment and requirements of our society seems like a good reason to create. I believe that, for example, ethical issues will play an increasing role in changing our aesthetic appreciation. Today I think there is little purpose in designers re-writing the book every season. Fashion is no longer linear. I think that we are entering a period when season-less clothes will force designers to become more relevant and fulfil a need rather than a whim.
Lightness with substance is at the forefront of what we do. Our clothing is designed for gentlemen who do not feel that they have to comply with conventional dictums. We strive to create a brand that has strong links with British formalwear, and yet captures the lightness, volume and ease of modern day sportswear. We work with the finest craftspeople in their respective fields to create a brand, which is genuinely about modern English culture. Celebrating high art to street culture.
Where do you feel we are ‘at’ nowadays with menswear?
Some of the strongest emerging figures are British designers, once again working without huge resources but great ideas, and I think they are making products of a higher quality than ever before. Today being a young designer must be very tough and to start up requires far more than it used to in every respect - from technical knowledge to production and marketing, that's without mentioning designing in a post modern era. I'm excited by the new generation of progressive menswear designers such as J.W. Anderson, Christopher Shannon and Carola Euler. Menswear is going through a very exciting moment.
Charlie Casely-Hayford
What was it like, growing up with a well-known fashion designer as your father?
In my youth, we would go on trips as a family with my little sister to Paris Fashion Week. I remember as a child pulling a sickie when I was at school to go to one of my father's London shows and ended up sitting in the front row beside Princess Diana - it was her first ever fashion show. I tried to tell people in my English class the next day but no one believed me. Through my early teens I would always sneak out of the house so my dad wouldn't give me a half an hour critique on what I was wearing! It's difficult as a young boy when your father dresses a lot better than you. My friends have always thought my father was a lot cooler than me, but it's just something I've got to grips with. I make him stay at home nowadays, so he doesn't upstage me! When I still lived at home, he was the one who taught me how to use decks. In the last couple of years he has introduced me to music such as the XX, Friendly Fires, Ox. Eagle.Lion.Man and These New Puritans. All my other friends' dads listen to Cliff Richard..
Can you recall when you first became really interested in fashion and style?
My fascination with style came hand in hand with my love of art, I think the two are so interrelated that I couldn't develop a passion for one without the other. This was the reason why I decided to study History of Art rather than Fashion at University, a lot of the menswear silhouettes that we create are based around architectural forms. The main silhouette for this season is based around the entasis of an ancient Greek column. I love the idea of emulating optical illusions created by the Ancient Greeks to create modern menswear proportions.
What else have you been involved in the past few years, outside of your current collaboration with Joe?
I studied fine art in Florence, before going onto St. Martins and then the Courtauld Institute to do History of Art. I've been at Dover Street Market for a few seasons - it's such an innovative environment, it feeds my constant thirst for creativity. Modelling is something I kind of fell into, I'd much rather be behind the camera, so I only really work with brands and people I respect and admire - like Judy Blame or on the Dr Martens campaign. I've been styling and modelling in Japan for the best part of three years. I'm working on a few other projects at the moment, but my main focus lies with nurturing the brand.
What's it like working with your dad?
It's like working with a walking encyclopedia. He knows everything there is to know about style. He is never satisfied with an idea that isn't taken to its furthest depths. Joining forces just seems very natural and a progression of something that was always there. Everything I've learnt has been taught to me by my father. He approaches things with an open mind and doesn't always expect me to conform to his ideals. For me, it is this dichotomy that makes the brand interesting.
Tell me about the collection...
Foremost, the collection has purposefully not been designed for every man. The Casely-Hayford man doesn't wear clothes to build or create a character, he is confident enough in himself. We try and create clothing with substance, rather than existing temporarily as a hollow trend. My father always reminds me that 'the whisper is louder than the shout', and in this sense we will always strive to create beautiful, distilled clothing - innovation is at the forefront, with a strong foundation in tradition. Our quest is and always has been to achieve understated elegance.
How do you see the label fitting into, or differentiating itself, from what else is 'out there' in contemporary menswear?
Based around the idea of a darkened aspiration', I feel the brand's uniqueness comes from its inherent duality: There are very few menswear brands, let alone British menswear brands that are in a position to genuinely fuse the secrets of Savile Row with the contemporary sportswear of London's youth culture, in a meaningful and subtle way,
Joel Casely-Hayford
Tell me about your initial days as a designer, after leaving St Martins in the late '70s? It's funny, but like my son Charlie, I developed new projects alongside my studies. I sold my collection to shops on the Kings Road and places like the legendary DEMOB in Soho. By the time I left St Martins I had already created links with a number of influential shops, I was offered a consignment of used Second World War tents and began ripping them apart to make distressed clothes, which ran counter to the mainstream statements of the time. They were old and dirty; I was forced to wash them industrially and began to make a name for myself. I was contacted by a number of bands and started styling and doing commissions. Later I was asked by Island Records to adapt the image of visiting American artists to the taste levels of the UK market, or to give new or not so cool bands a bit more edge. Eventually I was approached by The Clash and designed some stage clothes for them. U2 were big Clash fans and invited me to design all costumes for their Zoopra and Achtung Baby albums and world tour.
Looking back, what have been your most memorable or significant menswear innovations so far?
i-D has captured many of them over the years. From three-dimensional lapels, exposed seams to many other examples of deconstructed tailoring in the '80s. Oversized distorted knitwear in the '90s, buckshot brogues, and the fusion between sportswear and formal clothing. In 1996 I was the subject of a retrospective exhibition of plain white shirt designs in Tokyo.
Did you actively encourage Charlie to become interested in fashion when he was younger?
No, not at all. It's something he developed himself. There was definitely a moment, aged 10, when he ended up at a super academic school wearing wire frame spectacles, was as skinny as a rake and had a flat top hairdo. But by 13, after having words with him, he began to move on and evolved his own unique style. For a while I thought Charlie would pursue a different career path from me, but it's been rewarding watching him and my daughter Alice grow creatively over the years.
What prompted this new father-son venture?
I still feel as excited as when I first walked through the doors of St. Martins. I don't feel like I've created my greatest work yet. It seemed natural to take this step with Charlie who has been a confidant and collaborator for some time: I have a great deal of respect for Charlie's discipline and focus. His input isn't always that of the young avant-garde experimentalist. He is often conservative and pensive and approaches things from a classical standpoint. So it isn't predetermined that I stand for tradition and he innovation. We have a very clear idea of the form that our collection will take. We believe that no other brand can capture the duality of English sartorialism and British Anarchy, and celebrate the beauty of high art and street culture simultaneously. We aim to offer a new and considered vision of English style in the 21" century.
You talked to me in the past about having a 'slow burn' approach to menswear, rather than leaping about from trend to trend, across season to season, as various other designers do...
I am a great believer in 'Slow Fashion’. Today like the economy, the currency of designer fashion has been significantly devalued. Ideas like clothes have become far too disposable. I believe in a more considered approach to design. The idea of function in formal clothing is very interesting to me. The fusion between formal and sportswear seems to be: a logical progression. Solving new equations, which arise from the changing cultural environment and requirements of our society seems like a good reason to create. I believe that, for example, ethical issues will play an increasing role in changing our aesthetic appreciation. Today I think there is little purpose in designers re-writing the book every season. Fashion is no longer linear. I think that we are entering a period when season-less clothes will force designers to become more relevant and fulfil a need rather than a whim.
Lightness with substance is at the forefront of what we do. Our clothing is designed for gentlemen who do not feel that they have to comply with conventional dictums. We strive to create a brand that has strong links with British formalwear, and yet captures the lightness, volume and ease of modern day sportswear. We work with the finest craftspeople in their respective fields to create a brand, which is genuinely about modern English culture. Celebrating high art to street culture.
Where do you feel we are ‘at’ nowadays with menswear?
Some of the strongest emerging figures are British designers, once again working without huge resources but great ideas, and I think they are making products of a higher quality than ever before. Today being a young designer must be very tough and to start up requires far more than it used to in every respect - from technical knowledge to production and marketing, that's without mentioning designing in a post modern era. I'm excited by the new generation of progressive menswear designers such as J.W. Anderson, Christopher Shannon and Carola Euler. Menswear is going through a very exciting moment.
Charlie Casely-Hayford
What was it like, growing up with a well-known fashion designer as your father?
In my youth, we would go on trips as a family with my little sister to Paris Fashion Week. I remember as a child pulling a sickie when I was at school to go to one of my father's London shows and ended up sitting in the front row beside Princess Diana - it was her first ever fashion show. I tried to tell people in my English class the next day but no one believed me. Through my early teens I would always sneak out of the house so my dad wouldn't give me a half an hour critique on what I was wearing! It's difficult as a young boy when your father dresses a lot better than you. My friends have always thought my father was a lot cooler than me, but it's just something I've got to grips with. I make him stay at home nowadays, so he doesn't upstage me! When I still lived at home, he was the one who taught me how to use decks. In the last couple of years he has introduced me to music such as the XX, Friendly Fires, Ox. Eagle.Lion.Man and These New Puritans. All my other friends' dads listen to Cliff Richard..
Can you recall when you first became really interested in fashion and style?
My fascination with style came hand in hand with my love of art, I think the two are so interrelated that I couldn't develop a passion for one without the other. This was the reason why I decided to study History of Art rather than Fashion at University, a lot of the menswear silhouettes that we create are based around architectural forms. The main silhouette for this season is based around the entasis of an ancient Greek column. I love the idea of emulating optical illusions created by the Ancient Greeks to create modern menswear proportions.
What else have you been involved in the past few years, outside of your current collaboration with Joe?
I studied fine art in Florence, before going onto St. Martins and then the Courtauld Institute to do History of Art. I've been at Dover Street Market for a few seasons - it's such an innovative environment, it feeds my constant thirst for creativity. Modelling is something I kind of fell into, I'd much rather be behind the camera, so I only really work with brands and people I respect and admire - like Judy Blame or on the Dr Martens campaign. I've been styling and modelling in Japan for the best part of three years. I'm working on a few other projects at the moment, but my main focus lies with nurturing the brand.
What's it like working with your dad?
It's like working with a walking encyclopedia. He knows everything there is to know about style. He is never satisfied with an idea that isn't taken to its furthest depths. Joining forces just seems very natural and a progression of something that was always there. Everything I've learnt has been taught to me by my father. He approaches things with an open mind and doesn't always expect me to conform to his ideals. For me, it is this dichotomy that makes the brand interesting.
Tell me about the collection...
Foremost, the collection has purposefully not been designed for every man. The Casely-Hayford man doesn't wear clothes to build or create a character, he is confident enough in himself. We try and create clothing with substance, rather than existing temporarily as a hollow trend. My father always reminds me that 'the whisper is louder than the shout', and in this sense we will always strive to create beautiful, distilled clothing - innovation is at the forefront, with a strong foundation in tradition. Our quest is and always has been to achieve understated elegance.
How do you see the label fitting into, or differentiating itself, from what else is 'out there' in contemporary menswear?
Based around the idea of a darkened aspiration', I feel the brand's uniqueness comes from its inherent duality: There are very few menswear brands, let alone British menswear brands that are in a position to genuinely fuse the secrets of Savile Row with the contemporary sportswear of London's youth culture, in a meaningful and subtle way,