Last year Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Gallery dedicated a retrospective, entitled "A Big Adventure" (spanning 1963 to 2020), to one of Scotland's greatest artists - painter, graphic designer, playwright and scriptwriter John Byrne.
The creator of iconic portraits of actors (Billy Connolly anybody? View this photo) and musicians, and the author of cult classics such as the play "The Slab Boys" (1978; part of a trilogy based on his own experiences mixing paint for the designers at AF Stoddard & Co carpet factory after leaving school in the '50s – the colour used by the carpet designers was heaped onto marble slabs by appretince designers, the "slab boys"; Byrne returned to AF Stoddard & Co as a carpet designer later on in his life) and TV series "Tutti Frutti" (1987), ode to teddy boy and rockabilly culture, themes that were also featured in his most recent play "Fegs of Underwood Lane", Byrne is regarded in his native Scotland as a prolific polymath.
In the early '80s Byrne was part of a group of young painters called the New Glasgow Boys (a reference to the Glasgow Boys, late-19th century modern painters).
His works, though often serious and melancholic, have always been colourful despite tha fact he was born in Ferguslie Park, Paisley, one of the most deprived areas in Scotland. Some of his works are also comic and affectionate, such as the portrait of his former partner, actor Tilda Swinton (View this photo).
As a student at the Glasgow School of Art (GSA), Byrne won the Bellahouston travelling scholarship, which allowed him to study in Italy in 1963-4.
Today, Byrne returned to Italy symbolically, through the clothes of Scottish fashion designer Charles Jeffrey Loverboy, who showcased his A/W 23 collection in Milan.
Leaving behind London (the local event dedicated to menswear that took place annually before Pitti in Florence and where Jeffrey showcased his designs, simply died...), Jeffrey who lived in Scotland till he was 18 years old, brought to the Milanese runways a clash of cultures with quite a few Scottish references.
The new collection of his gender fluid brand, that takes its name from his eponymous club nights, included "Loverboy" Fair Isle knits, trousers that incorporated kilts, tartan prints and kilts, a garment the designer loves (by the way, get yours out, kilts are never out of fashion, but they have reappeared recently on some menswear runways, so they will be trending come next season), and dresses with prints of Byrne's paintings "The American Boy" and "Dead End".
Jeffrey fell in love with Byrne's paintings for a personal affinity - both come from working-class backgrounds, and both went to art school.
The designer anticipated this inspiration in the printed overcoat with tartan collar (from Byrne's "Dead End") and the blue silk gown (featuring a section of Byrne's mural for the King's Theatre dome in Edinburgh View this photo) he created for Tilda Swinton (who also donned for the occasion a hairstyle reminiscent of Byrne's teddy boys...) for the Fashion Awards ceremony in London last December.
Jeffrey's collection showcased in Milan was entitled "The Engine Room" and some models also had smudges of dirty on their faces as if they had been working, well, in an engine room or a printing press or as if they had spent some time mudlarking, as proved by some of the accessories they sported (such as the crocheted belts incorporating stones) that were at times reminiscent of the late Judy Blame.
Jeffrey retained also in this collection a strong link with the late Vivienne Westwood in the use of tartan, kilts, tweeds and in the slogan T-shirts with Jeffrey's own newspaper print (he came up with a fake newspaper for this collection - "The Scottish Basic", written in a font reminiscent of "The Scotsman", Edinburgh's newspaper), but especially in the corset-shaped tops matched with skirts with Byrne's paintings and in the historical references scattered here and there in the collection.
Jeffrey has the imagination you need in fashion – for the show he created three separate subcultures called "The Workers", "The Posers" and "The Snakes", and also came up with a remix of an Oliver Sim track for the finale of the show, combining crooner elements with experimental music - yet he still needs to find his true soul (but opting for Byrne was a great move as he found an affinity with him).
Who knows, maybe his Italian experience will help him finding more connections with factories and to improve some aspects of his collections. For the time being, it was clever of Jeffrey to abandon London that now more than ever is desperately looking for the next big thing to bet on but isn't offering at the same time solid fashion week calendars.
Jeffrey seemed content to just be in Milan that he compared to Glasgow. Mind you, while both can be deemed architecturally vibrant cities, the snobbish side of Milan (fashion press officers included) would (luckily) never be able to exist in Glasgow which is more down to earth.
Subverting Milan may be a bit difficult (and Jeffrey will need to work harder and find investors as well), but it's not impossible. In future Jeffrey may even be able to become more daring through his newspaper prints using pieces of news that will go down well with his gender fluid label.
In December 2022, the Scottish Parliament passed the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, that makes easier to change gender and apply for legal recognition (the new rules lower the age that people can apply for a gender recognition certificate to 16, and removes the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria). Yet it was announced two days ago that British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is poised to block the Scottish reforms. We'll see what happens next, but it looks like Jeffrey will have a lot more slogans to add to his newspaper T-shirts and kilts come next season.
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