Charles Jeffrey — Loverboy

Words Adri­an Glass

The UK fash­ion indus­try owes so much to its ear­ly 1980s design­ers, that emerged, most­ly in Lon­don to set down a dis­tinc­tive­ly orig­i­nal take on the Do-it-Your­self eth­ic, in fact so dynam­ic was their enthu­si­asm at that time, by the mid 80’s their styles and lim­it­ed ranges were eager­ly snapped up by the Amer­i­cans on a impromp­tu pro­mo­tion­al tour in 1986 to New York City by the likes of Bet­ty Jack­son, Kather­ine Ham­nett, John Gal­liano and the inno­v­a­tive duo of Bodymap: Ste­vie Stew­art and David Holah. Even in the late 1970s when Vivi­enne West­wood began to cut and reshape cloth­ing to fit a cold war res­o­nance of post punk sen­si­bil­i­ties, pri­or to the mid 80s fash­ion explo­sion. The col­lec­tive cre­ativ­i­ty of the Lon­don scene still shines through to this day and appears to be equal­ly respect­ful of its roots and influence. 

And the emerg­ing design­er Charles Jef­frey of his brand Lover­boy is no excep­tion to the viva­cious­ness that was the 80s Lon­don club/fashion vibe, to point of reliv­ing its vari­a­tions of dynam­ics. Whilst pay­ing homage to that spe­cial time in UK fash­ion, Jef­frey, upon mov­ing from his native Scot­land (Glas­gow) to Lon­don while study­ing at Cen­tral Saint Mar­tins, also launched a club, named in its appro­pri­ate man­ner: Lover­boy. 

For his Fall 2020 men’s wear show, Jef­frey’s the­atri­cal styl­iza­tions remain poignant, offer­ing more of a glimpse at his social aware­ness, in light of cli­mate change issues and the rise of sus­tain­able fash­ion. Yet, specif­i­cal­ly from an aes­thet­ic sense, his 2020 Lover­boy col­lec­tion, con­scious or not, is pay­ing a lot of respect to Vivi­enne West­wood’s 1980s run­way shows, with a snap­shot of her frol­ic­some “Mini-Cri­ni” col­lec­tion of 85′. In rep­re­sent­ing the back­logged time-line when the fin­er tai­lor­ing began to take shape mov­ing fur­ther into the 1990s, to which Jeffrey’s lat­est col­lec­tion fol­lows suit. There is also the play­ful­ness and sen­si­bil­i­ties that UK design­ers are renown for, with­in the seem­ing­ly som­bre stage show before and after the viewed col­lec­tion. Of a dark and hol­lowed out tree, in rep­re­sent­ing the destruc­tion of the nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment. Jeffrey’s has also expressed, for his lat­est col­lec­tion, a cos­tumed fes­ti­val feel, in his seri­ous­ness of chang­ing fash­ion’s prac­tice, par­tic­u­lar­ly the waste cre­at­ed by its industries. 

The Lover­boy col­lec­tion via Jeffrey’s imprint in social­ly cre­at­ing an aware­ness of the chang­ing cli­mate, he also wrote a man­i­festo, which was revealed as a press release for the Lon­don show. Detail­ing the process to which his 2020 Fall col­lec­tion was put togeth­er, in an impas­sioned way that Lover­boy, as a brand, will main­tain an effort in reduc­ing its car­bon footprint.