London’s favourite menswear designer has just launched on e-tailer Mr Porter with a collection that includes three exclusive pieces in his signature cobalt blue colourway. Sleek caught up with the design genius (and nicest guy in the biz) Craig Green at a preview of the collection in Berlin.
Sleek: So Craig, what pieces make up the collection for Mr Porter?
Craig: The collection is made up of mainline pieces from AW17, like the ones which are fully hand-block printed inside and based on Portuguese tiles and carpets. Another example is the scarf jumper with the attached bandolier detail, so you can wear it different ways. The rest of the pieces are part of our Core Collection, that’s a new part of the brand launching this season. It’s basically the idea of creating a continuous wardrobe, like a uniform for our customer based on classic styles. Something the brand has become kind of known for.
Sleek: I see your signature quilting and strings in there too. I love that during Men’s fashion weeks I see so many guys with their Craig Green straps flying around.
Craig: Haha yes. That’s another detail in this collection – all the strings are lead weighted! This electric blue colour is exclusive for Mr Porter. The colour is kind of synonymous with the brand since the Spring Summer 15 show was all electric blue. And then the one that I’m wearing is a classic worker jacket shape – everything has the string detailing. There are core pieces and best-sellers and then we have the more classic, uniform style garments – like our take on the slim shirt.
“It’s basically the idea of creating a continuous wardrobe, like a uniform for our customer based on classic styles.”
Sleek: It’s great to find some kind of continuity in Fashion’s aggressively moving cycle. I suppose you can wear these core pieces throughout the seasons?
Craig: Exactly. It’s kind of like a non-seasonal collection. I mean I buy the same pair of black converse over and over – you wear them out and then you re-buy them, when you find something that you like, you stick to it. Or I will buy a sweatshirt, and then I will go back to the store, and the sweatshirt won’t be there or they change the cut, and you’re really annoyed. It’s the idea of building a wardrobe and a uniform – the brand is totally about that.
Sleek: All the cool guys tend to have a distinctive uniform.
Craig: I like when you see someone from a distance, you know it’s them just from their coat.
Craig Green available at Mr Porter
Sleek: How important do you think stockists like Mr. Porter are important to young designers in their first few seasons?
Craig: It is an incredible platform. It’s more of a traditional kind of menswear retailer and its really important for us that we can sit alongside other brands, the major menswear brands and the brands that do really amazing classics. The shows should be a creative expression where we kind of do experimental things ideas and concepts, but we are building the brand around the core aesthetic as well.
Sleek: It is pretty impressive to keep the balance between such a strong vision for your show – which is the must-see at LFWM, alongside some very accessible garments that have your signature details and really appeal to the Mr. Porter customer. It reminds me a bit of the Comme des Garcons model. Whimsical showpieces and also garments rooted in reality.
Craig: It is also showing people we do make those kinds of things, we do have pieces that you can access, it’s just not a man in wearing a giant carpet explosion. That’s not for me – I wear cotton work wear sort of things.
Sleek: Speaking of those explosions, I know a few people who have cried at your shows actually, one of my friends did. He was totally overwhelmed by it all – in a good way of course. How important for you is it to create such an intense performance?
C: It wasn’t intentional but we always try and find the romance. I guess that’s the brand aesthetic too, romanticising things that may not be instantly romantic. The communal way of dressing, sort of bringing people together through dress, which has fallen away in the way the world is going -which sounds very conceptual. music is important to the show, although my clothes are not inspired by music.
“that’s the brand aesthetic too, romanticising things that may not be instantly romantic.”
Sleek: What are they inspired by?
At the beginning, when I was graduating, the first collection was based around the idea between religious wear and workwear and that idea for something for function and something for spiritual function. That’s why we always have straps and fastenings and strings, that some of them do things and some them don’t. It’s always this mix between, function practicality and a trick string!
Craig Green Core Collection, available at Mr Porter
Sleek: I saw that you’ve been involved in designing the costumes for the new Alien Covenant film. How was that process?
Craig: The costume designer is Janty Yates, she won a golden globe for Gladiator. She came to the studio, I think she was calling the wrong number or something, no one was getting back so she came in the building knocking on all the doors. I didn’t know who she was.- luckily she wasn’t some strange person, it was actually someone very important.
Anyway, Janty went through Autumn 2015 collection and she was like ‘we love this, we love that’. When they wake up in the pods in the spaceship at the beginning of every Alien, they are wearing the hand tweed jersey full bodysuits – so they looked quite recognizable. Our corded vests will be on the military guys, going to fight the aliens. I haven’t seen it yet, only have seen a few images but I’m very excited!
“Our corded vests will be on the military guys, going to fight the aliens”
Sleek: Your beautiful AW16 campaign was shot on drones. Do you think technology is important in creating something new?
Craig: We just liked the idea really, it is photographerless. It was the idea of, you know those old national geographic books you used to get and every page was a landscape or something and someone said why don’t you use drones.
Sleek: It’s somehow noncompliant with so many other brands, who base the success of a campaign on getting the hottest photographer of the moment – and instead yours was a machine.
Craig: It was a fun thing to do. The drone company usually just do weddings! The last one we did was people climbing onto each other, in all kind of misty colours. We did that with Jack Davison – so there we went back to a photographer. I think we are going to change it each season, a different energy, and different soul, which I think is important.
Craig Green AW17
The core collection is an early drop from AW17 and will sit alongside the mainline, so you can be one step ahead of the menswear game this season. The pieces are available at various stockists including Selfridges, Dover Street Market and Matches Fashion, while Mr. Porter newly stocks the collection along with exclusive pieces available here.