This week Saul Nash is selling his new collection, Archetypes, in a showroom in the Marais in Paris, a space he’s sharing with his fellow London designer Foday Dumbaya of Labrum. Banding together is a very London thing—specifically, in this case, representing the diverse menswear culture that has grown up in the city over the past decade. (Martine Rose, Grace Wales Bonner, Priya Ahluwalia, and Bianca Saunders are all members of that same surge, as is Labrum, and now the newest designers are Charlie Constantinou and Yaku Stapleton.) “We’re all quite close, London’s designers,” said Nash.
“Since I began in 2018, I always felt the support from them. We all move together.”
The collaborative London ethos is underpinned by the fact that everyone’s offering potential buyers something different. In Nash’s case, it’s the way he’s moving towards a more nuanced development of sportswear. “When I started, I was really attached to the idea of a tracksuit. As I get older, there’s different ways to wear it. It takes on a new meaning as the seasons evolve.”
Nash has taken a look at classic menswear genres like the Harrington jacket, the tailored shirt, the fisherman’s smock, denim—the ‘archetypes’ of the collection’s title. “It’s sportswear worn with what you’d call menswear. This season it was really essential to me to explore what that means within the world of movement. Because I don’t ever want people to feel restrained in my clothing.”
The subtleties spring to life close up—and only really when the pieces are worn. There’s the cocooning cut of a hoodie, but it’s also designed to be worn over a poplin shirt. The shirts themselves are cut without shoulder seams, and with elasticated cuffs. You can see how Nash’s built-in construction—raglan sleeves and ergonomic twists in cut—will work for contemporary commuting, cycling, and work. Like him, his followers are growing up. These days, when not performing or working as a movement director, Nash wears Sebago loafers, not trainers. His collaboration with Vibram—in which their athletic soles are hybridized onto loafers—neatly captures the essence of the whole collection.