A slightly faded polaroid dug out of a box of old pictures. It shows a display in a museum, a glass case containing banana-shaped boots donned by beloved Glaswegian comedian Billy Connolly during his Big Banana Boots tour in the mid-1970s. They are preserved at Glasgow’s People's Palace, and when I first saw them as a student in 1998, I thought the peeling banana boots, one of them with the famous Fyffes label, were hilariously cool and fun.
So, I took a polaroid of the boots designed and made for Connolly by Glasgow pop artist, Edmund Smith (please note, the boots are often erroneously attributed to Scottish artist John Byrne, but the Glasgow Museums website correctly states they were made by Smith) to remind me how silly they looked, and how they instantly put a smile on the face of many visitors.
In January, a more wearable version of the boots reappeared in Charles Jeffrey Loverboy's A/W 24 menswear collection (that also included banana-peel boots, a banana beanie and a banana-print suit with a banana on each shoulder), and, more recently, in the label's S/S 25 collection.
Charles Jeffrey is a Glasgow kid keen on giving a twist to his roots through punkish tartan reinventions and tributes to Scottish artists such as John Byrne, so the nod to Connolly's boots was spot on (surprising how JW Anderson didn't appropriate the idea first…).
On Friday, Loverboy celebrated his 10th anniversary in fashion with the launch of his exhibition at Somerset House in London and his S/S 25 show in the courtyard.
Co-curated by Charles Jeffrey Loverboy, Jonathan Faiers, Bunny Kinney and Somerset House and on display in the Terrace Rooms, "The Lore of Loverboy" (until 1st September) takes visitors on a journey that starts with the origins of the Loverboy label, with an exploration of his club night, and early works inspired by Andy Warhol and Vivienne Westwood.
Three rooms - Initiation, Ritual and Manifestation - offer insights into Jeffrey's Scottish heritage, exploring the designer's practice through sketch books, club night posters and photographs, and tackling a variety of themes, from cinematic references to historicism, heritage, folklore and queerness.
On display there are Loverboy's most iconic designs, including the silver jumpsuit (2017) worn by pop star Harry Styles, and armor created using distinctive Wedgwood ceramics (the result of a collaboration with the iconic British brand) and the custom-made outfit inspired by John Byrne's artworks designed for actress Tilda Swinton for The British Fashion Awards 2022.
There is a sense of something in progress here and a tribute to the design process: aside from the fabric swatches and mood boards, there's also a pattern cutting table (just like the one the atelier team use daily in the fashion house's HQ in Somerset House Studios, situated two floors below the exhibition space). The table is about the ritual of creating and designing together.
as a whole the show, that also includes Loverboy's most popular pieces such as his ear beanies and his silver-clawed shoes (the latest in a long tradition of paw shoes that started with Vivienne Westwood's S/S 2002 paw slingbacks View this photo, an idea reinvented in Westwood's Anglomania version for Melissa View this photo, but adopted by other designers including Louboutin in 2011 View this photo, and, JW Anderson in 2023 View this photo) is more about the designer's creative passion and his interest in the clubbing culture as an intrinsic part of the fashion performance, than just about fashion.
The final bonus to this exhibition? You pay what you can to get in, a great way to remind us that art, fashion and creativity should be for everybody and not just for a selected elite.
Showcased in the Somerset House courtyard, the S/S 25 show marked a return to the UK for Loverboy after he held shows in Milan and Paris.
The collection looked like a riot of colors and textures, yet, a more in-depth analysis revealed wearable pieces (furry pink claw shoes, new animal-eared beanies and balaclavas, and felt paper hats, or thin scarves shaped like a long swan neck) that will be a hit with kids, but also designs that may prove popular with older consumers more keen on subtle punk twists in a garment (check out the playful striped shirts, the dresses with oversized rosettes, but also the black suit with just a silhouette of a couple of bananas along the lapel).
While piercing arrows pointed at Saint Sebastian and seemed to be a camp reference to La Casati's Saint Sebastian costume, aside from the banana boots (the banana theme also appeared in a banana-shaped crocheted bag...), there was another reference to Scotland in the black and white polka-dot designs, maybe a muted ode to Jill Bryson and Rose McDowall's Strawberry Switchblade, the girl band from the Glasgow School of Art who dressed like an art installation and sang pop ballads.
Purple horns protruded from one of the polka-dot designs, the final one, but that moment of utter extravagance inspired by mobile gaming franchise's character P.E.K.K.A. didn't distract from the fact that Jeffrey has become more commercial, while retaining his originality and humor, his hope to pervert certain codes (something that he borrowed also from Vivienne Westwood, a figure that looms large in his collections) and his will to queer-ify things, as he often states in interviews.
His knits with trompe l'oeil uniforms complete with frogging were the proof: they played a key role in the collection and remained true to his queer inspirations, pointing at softness, and therefore subverting the concept of uniforms and armors for strong men.
In a nutshell, Loverboy has evolved from his early shows and experimental student designs and turned into an entrepreneur without betraying his roots.
The designs with images of naked bodies like the male classical nude sculpture - supposed to be a way to hint at London's Roman occupation - were instead less original, as the history of fashion is rife with prints of naked bodies or naked statues (think about Westwood's corseted evening jackets for the designer's first on-schedule menswear show, Vivienne Westwood MAN, Autumn-Winter 1996/97; Issey Miyake's A/W 1996-97 dress with a collage incorporating a nude female figure from the Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres painting "La Source" View this photo, or Jean Paul Gaultier's S/S 96 muscle trompe l'oeil looks View this photo, reinvented in the Y/project x Gaultier's 2022 body morph designs View this photo, or Jean Paul Gaultier's S/S 99 naked statue dress, View this photo).
Other highlights included Beth Ditto (who sang Patti Smith's "Gloria") in an asymmetric scarlet and purple striped dress that evoked a bit too much the striped designs in Vivienne Westwood’s S/S 2015 Red Label collection, while his soft armors matched with crenelated castle hats were suspended between Westwood’s 1988-89 armors and Comme des Garçons' Homme Plus A/W 2016-17 armored jackets.
Hopefully, at some point Jeffrey will distance himself even more from his inspirations (he will have to do it if he wants people to stop comparing him to Westwood and Galliano).
But there are points in his favor: so far Jeffrey managed to create desirable and affordable small hero products, almost merchandise you'd buy to pledge your allegiance to a band, that turned into hits with kids (think about the coveted Boy London hat in the mid-'80s, and compare it with Loverboy's ear beanie, a simple idea that gets reiterated every season since it sells well).
The second point is the fact that Loverboy managed to survive through Covid and Brexit, contrary to other brands.
Christopher Kane collapsed in 2023, The Vampire's Wife closed in May this year, while Roksanda Ilinčić also sold her namesake label to The Brand Group (TBG), but Loverboy was lucky enough to be spotted by Tomorrow Ltd.
Positioning itself as an alternative to huge and powerful conglomerates, the fashion brand development platform and brand accelerator has invested in quite a few London-based brands, buying in 2021 a majority in Jeffrey’s label and investing over £25m into various independent designers in the past five years.
Last but not least, Loverboy has built a safety net around himself, diversifying things: the banana boots may be a reference to Connolly, but they may also point at Andy Warhol's iconic banana screenprint.
Jeffrey seems indeed more interested in creating a Factory-like environment than just an atelier. So far, he never betrayed his interests in club cultures, and, as the years passed, he consistently stayed on the interdisciplinary path, producing music, launching Loverboy Radio on Foundation FM and developing creative projects like short films.
In a press release, Jonathan Faiers, Professor of Fashion Thinking at University of Southampton and co-curator of the exhibition at Somerset house calls Loverboy "not just an inimitable fashion brand, but a way of being."
In many ways Loverboy should be a case study: fashion design courses typically teach students how to become fashion designers, but they don't teach them how to diversify and branch out into other fields that may sustain them in case their fashion dream doesn't take off (and how many other fields could be explored by fashion design students?).
What's next for Jeffrey? An art project with artists who add a playful twist to their works, such as Jeremy Deller? Costumes for an avant-garde ballet or maybe a queer comedy show? Will these ideas ever come to fruition?
Only time will tell. But if these remain just conjectures and fashion doesn't pan out for him, fear not - there's always the club night to blow off steam and shake off the blues.
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