For Fall 2018, Kent Curwen’s creative director Daniel Kearns recruited Perry Ogden to help meld his vision of heritage-steeped sportswear and tailoring to the preoccupations of contemporary youth. Around the theme of preparation, the bravura documentarian shot street-cast London youngsters wearing Kearn’s designs and doing what they usually do; playing football, boxing, playing music, making art. This might not have been an entirely now vision of 2018—no cell phones, no PlayStations—but the new boys looked great in clothes that carefully referenced the styles of their forebears.
Over sticky toffee pudding at the Kent Curwen presentation yesterday, Kearns said of the project—and the collection that inflects it—“we were trying to make something very based on London and its melting pots, something real, raw, and authentic.”
At that moment the brand’s majority owner David Beckham ambled up and sat down. He’d just been next door with his son Romeo looking at the installation of Ogden’s work. We were in a space just along from the new store on Floral Street, the Covent Garden thoroughfare first made menswear-relevant by Sir Paul Smith back in 1979. Business, he said, has been good in a site far more densely populated with younger customers than the old site on Savile Row. There is no more trenchant critic than a teenager. Had Beckham’s own boys taken to the brand?
He said, “I’m lucky to have young kids who are all different characters. So, some like fashion, some don’t; they’ve all got their own style. But to have kids who do actually want to wear the clothing is something I’m very proud of.”
Nodding at Kearns, he added: “We always spoke from day one about creating a brand which a) has its own identity, and b) is multigenerational. Something for us guys at our age, but also . . . you know my middle boy, Romeo was here today. And he was excited to wear the clothes. He wore them his own way, styled by himself, wearing a pair of black jeans with tucked-in socks and a pair of boots . . . and that’s something I’m very proud of. And I know for a fact that right now Brooklyn is in in my wardrobe, nicking more of my stuff because he does it every single day. Brooklyn just wears K&C every day.”
If domestic pilfering chez Beckham is a fair indication of success, then Kearns is cutting the mustard.
