Emerging London Brand Derrick Reimagines Richard James

LONDON — Newgen menswear designer Luke Derrick is creating a new wave of suiting, so it’s only natural that he would teamed with Richard James, once a Savile Row maverick, on a capsule collection.

The pieces fuse Richard James’ penchant for sleek suits and bold, unabashed print and color with Derrick’s own subversive take on tailoring. The collection includes suiting and accessories, such as a silky scarf and hat, with a punchy, graphic pattern dreamt up by Derrick.

“I had never designed a print before, and I always like to find a new way of doing something for a project,” he said.

The designer said his print inspired by archival photos of Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Nirowearing camouflage-pattern Richard James suits. He also looked at a moment from the early 2000s, when Richard James put bespoke suits, destroyed by paint, in its windows.

After making a series of “bad” prints, Derrick said he eventually landed on one that worked. “I did a single paint brush stroke, scanned and zoomed into it. Each paint fleck was layered until the print became its own camou.”

Derrick and Richard James go back a few years. The tailor sponsored the designer’s Central Saint Martins BA graduate collection in 2019.

“Richard James was this real tailoring upstart in the late 1980s,” Derrick said. “And he was the cool tailor on Savile Row until the early 2000s. It just commanded a sense of British eccentricity with graphic prints — really punchy.”

Those adjectives could describe the designer’s namesake brand. Derrick has presented collections at London Fashion Week inspired by various tribes including the posturing cool boys of Shoreditch, tweedy Savile Row types and immigrants who have breathed new life into London’s fashion scene.