John Alexander Skelton. Fall 2020 - London Fashion Week

Images from the designer and the public domain. Credited to the photographer/company where applicable: WWD)

For all the visual merchandisers out there, it is known that dressing a mannequin is an art form in its self.  They, the mannequins, are obviously not human and in inanimate sense – completely lifeless.  So, to portray them in the latest fashion, particularly as a window display requires skills to make them seem conscious or at least aware of the clothing that is being promoted.  How this can be applied to a fashion show is disputable in its approach, yet the English fashion designer John Alexander Skelton for his men's Fall 2020 collection has attempted to create a field of mannequins displaying his latest styles.  This has been done before for fashion shows, but Skelton has set a stage that is more aligned with an English drama, more so he was influenced by the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas poem which was commissioned by the BBC as a radio melodrama in 1954.  

There is a natural and dignified toughness to this collection, of which Skelton has embellished a street wise cool over its Fashion Week showing, the simple and clean lines, maintaining the durability of locally sourced fabrics, which remain in similarity with what the Japanese designers from the early 1980s were able to accentuate when they changed couture.  The unstructured minimalism of utilizing the traditional linen, wool and fine yarns created from a masterful craftsmanship.  Which was very much a nod to the unsung artisan craftspeople and tailors of towns and villages.  Yet, with Skelton's array for Fall 2020, there can be no denying that this is a very English reflection of its working class roots of the 1950s and 60's.  The dulled and gray traditional wool layering, set as a patch work of formal styles, that, as mentioned resonate aspects of the English styles of bygone era's.  Whilst Skelton has given this collection a urban feel of contemporary dynamics, he has also immersed it with a sense of prestige, a retrospection to a poem about the dreams and hopes of fictional Welsh fishing village.  That in its ghostly resonance, concludes that time does fade all, including the memories.  But the history remains, although at some point it must be laid to rest so we can make peace with the past.  This, in my opinion, is the curse of repeating the suffering of past days.

An evocative and reflective exhibit for Skelton's men's Fall 2020 showing, with an equally impressive array of clothing on display.