Yesterday, British fashion designer Charles Jeffrey Loverboy showed his latest collection for Spring/Summer 2024 at Milan Men's Fashion Week. Dubbed "These New Caroleans", the collection looked back to apply the boom in creativity that defined the Restoration era – when King Charles II was invited back to the British throne in 1660 after our country's period as a republic – to the modern day. Celebrating the ingenuity, rebelliousness and future-thinking that has always defined British culture, it made sense that the house collaborated on a number of showpieces in the collection with a company founded by one of the most ingenious, forward-looking people our country has ever produced: Josiah Wedgwood.
Amongst the trefoil hats and buckle-detail dresses, flashed the unmistakable dual-colours of jasperware – a ceramic technique famously invented by Josiah Wedgwood himself in the eighteenth century and exported around the world. It was also poetic for the items to take to the catwalk in Milan, a city often on the itinerary of the Regency tourists taking the Grand Tour – a trip undertaken by the fashionable upper classes to visit sites of antiquity and the Renaissance throughout Europe. It was these tourists (and those who wanted to emulate them) who served as Wedgwood's primary customers for his reimagining of classical ceramics, especially in the UK and USA, during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries.
Pieces created in collaboration with Wedgwood included intricate and delicate armour, a dress, and a sword and shield, all featuring vintage blue and black ceramic jasperware trays, boxes and baubles. According to the house, these showpieces "offer a layer of symbolic protection for New Caroleans as we venture bravely into the future [and] tap into Josiah Wedgwood’s legacy as a politically active patron of the arts."
According to the press release from the house, they are also "a prelude to future Loverboy x Wedgwood capsule collections". Watch this space.
Arguably, even beyond the inclusion of ceramics made to his method, the collection itself was very in-line with Wedgwood's thinking. While Charles Jeffrey Loverboy took the past as his inspiration, this was the first collection he's shown where he's used AI (to design a psychedelic floral print). He also imbued the collection with nods to sportswear throughout, reflecting our modern-day focus on health and wellbeing.
"Throughout its illustrious history, Wedgwood has opened its doors to many revered artists," says Wedgwood Creative Director, Alice Bastin. "Our new vision is to reinstate Wedgwood as a creative hub for artists, welcoming in mavericks and thought leaders to express themselves freely through Wedgwood."
"It simply had to be Charles to start this new moment. Charles Jeffrey Loverboy reflects a freedom of expression, optimism and authenticity in his multidisciplinary approach which juxtaposes perfectly with Wedgwood's iconic jasperware."
> See the entire Charles Jeffrey Loverboy SS24 collection, featuring showpieces by Wedgwood, in our gallery below
