LFW: A Child of the Jago SS10

Josepth Corre and Simon "Barnzley" Armitage debuted their label A Child Of The Jago at the London Fashion Week men's presentations. Held at Wilton's Music Hall, the oldest music hall in the world, the spring summer collection reflects the sartorial excesses of the original dandy and the raw unpredictable razor’s edge of Rock & Roll, mixed with the traditions of Savile Row tailoring.

In essence, it made for a volatile cocktail of no-rules merchandising. Milkman jackets reminiscent of work wear’s golden age were presented alongside Scottish cashmere and fine shirting crafted in Jermyn Street factories.

Neither Corre nor Armitage are interested in disposable rebellion or a shallow veneer of style. They don’t believe standards of quality have been lost so much as they have been stolen, kidnapped, hijacked and brutalised by the mainstream fashion system. And they clearly don’t care how much shoe leather is worn away in their efforts to free quality from its current confinement. They have wired together an alternative network that unifies select Savile Row tailors with irreverent young talents from Japan’s best fashion academies.

The stellar front row included Corre's mother, Dame Vivienne Westwood, as well Boy George and stylist Judy Blame.

The A Child of the Jago store opened on Great Eastern Street in Shoreditch and houses everything from Napoleonic uniforms to antique French work wear along with complimenting curiosa like the leather-and-brass artificial leg of a long dead Hell’s Angel gang member, classic Rock & Roll 45s and 12” disco singles and an extensive library of out-of-print outré literature and underground artifacts from all across Europe. There is a bit of the feeling that you’ve stumbled across some nameless nobility on the downslide, who has been forced to sell off the family silver.

Image: ACOTJ SS10