Charles Jeffrey and his Loverboy friends pitched up in Paris during the menswear season. Like his London compatriot Martine Rose, he held a screening of the film he’d made to launch his collection. “The Curious Case of Moshkirk and Booness” is an intentionally ridiculous teen-centric romp, a dystopian fantasy scenario about a small town in Scotland that has been stuck in 1979 since a meteor strike. Suffice to say (it can be watched on the Charles Jeffrey Loverboy Youtube channel), it’s a cartoony pastiche of post-punk/New Wave style, which devolves into a wild town hall dance. Fronting the local band, Jeffrey himself can be made out, singing a self-penned number and flipping his wig while dancing in a red batwing suit printed with eyes.
Jeffrey’s brand is a multi-channel, interdisciplinary entity dedicated to keeping up the spirits of young queer people, a fashion club that promotes being as creative, individualistic, and defiantly funny as you like. As the accompanying lookbook shows, this may include the chance to jump into a pair of banana-peel boots, a banana-print suit with a banana on each shoulder, or perhaps just the beanie version.
It will take a wee while to explain the symbolism here, but it’s Jeffrey’s tribute to Billy Connolly, the late, outrageous Scottish comedian who wore such footwear on his Big Banana Boots tour in the mid-1970s. Jeffrey then discovered that the boots had been made by the late polymath theater director and designer John Byrne, who was Tilda Swinton’s partner.
Long story short, there was a gathering of Scottish creative aristocracy around the making of Jeffrey’s movie. Swinton let them shoot on her estate, and the Scottish actor Alan Cumming voiced the narrative. Being larger-than-life and twice as fun is Charles Jeffrey’s superpower. He attracts people to want to be a part of it, and makes that possible by making his collections accessible, distinctive, and highly readable in public and on social media.
Every season, there’ll be a new iteration of his CJL tartan (it was a punky red checked kilted combo, this time) and knits apparently cobbled together from Jeffrey’s own artwork. It’s surely the accessories which will get kids going though—the hilarious assortment of frog and monster beanies, the wellington boots with animal toes. These really are the trophies you’ll see 16-year-olds wearing in school bus queues all over, Scotland to Seoul and everywhere between.
