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Don’t call it a comeback: after four years in hibernation, Skepta’s Mains fashion line is to reawaken during London Fashion Week. The British-Nigerian music artist and producer says he is preparing to unveil a collection of “staple, crazy, beautiful, wearable clothes”.
Mains’s first fashion show will take place off-schedule at 8pm on 16 September at a venue yet to be revealed. The collection is designed by Skepta alongside Mains’s new chief designer Mikey Pearce, with graphic designs from Johnson Orchid. “While I haven’t been to fashion school like Mikey and Johnson have, I’ve always loved fashion,” Skepta says. “I’m lucky enough to be able to bounce ideas with them, and together we’ve been making a flood of pure magic.”
Mains first debuted in 2017, and was sold for two years at retailers including Selfridges before it was placed on hold after what Skepta calls an “amicable” split with his partner manufacturer at the time. Its return comes in part thanks to the support of Puma. The German sportswear giant inked a long-term deal with Skepta, full name Chief Joseph Olaitan Adenuga Jr, in September 2022. His global brand ambassador duties include new product design — at least one of which will be unveiled at the Mains show — and campaign curation.
Announcing that partnership, then Puma CEO Bjørn Gulden said at the time: “Skepta is the embodiment of progression, proven by the impact he has created on music, fashion and culture over the last two decades… He will play a multifaceted role, bringing to life his knowledge and vision, helping us revolutionise our progressive space.” Skepta stressed, however, that Mains is “entirely self-funded”.
Since inking that deal he has since set up a new design studio in Soho, London, where the Mains collection and forthcoming collaborations with Puma are in development. On the walls there this month were sketches for a full collection that Skepta said was inspired by his time spent in Miami: it included a strong denim section, a custom flannel, and new prints. The new collection, which retains the original Mains logo, will also include a collaboration with New Era.
“We’ve come up with something fresh,” said Skepta. “We want to make blueprint pieces, and they have to be wearable. We’re not making something that will sit in Tate Modern, but we want to make pieces that will be in a vintage store in 100 years: we’re sowing the seeds.” Some of the collection will be shown on a see-now-buy-now basis, in partnership with an as yet unannounced retailer.
Skepta is a regular attendee at fashion weeks in Paris and Milan, and was among the guests at Pharrell Williams’s recent debut as artistic director of Louis Vuitton menswear as well as Matthew M Williams’s most recent show at Givenchy. Contemplating the reaction he hopes to generate at his own show, Skepta said: “It’s about that elbow. When you’re sitting there at the show, and you’ve been to so many. And then suddenly that piece comes in and you do the elbow, even if you don’t know the person sitting next to you.”
Skepta said he wants to generate multiple “elbow moments”: “...from the shoes, the clothes, the caps, the silhouettes and the fits — how it will all look as it comes down the runway”.
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