Craig Green explores the new meaning of expansion and restrictive volume in his AW22 collection.
Craig Green’s return to the physical runway is nothing short of deeply analytical. Giving an early start to London Fashion Week, the British designer showcased his AW22 collection in an empty sugar factory warehouse just outside of East London. The industrial venue served the perfect purpose for the texturised and tactile creations that expressed restriction and the mind’s relationship with it.
The main element within the inspiration this season was the idea of control over the body, whether for pleasure or involuntary. Knitted balaclavas, hoods with strings that completely close down and sculpturesque folded rubber coats all gave a sense of closing in on the face, expressing a feeling of closing out one’s self due to fear, something we have all experienced in the last 2 years. Playing additionally with latex and medical pressure pumps attached to inflated footwear in collaboration with Adidas, there was a sense of expansion of the persona and a Craig Green signature play on body morphing, and expansion that signified an opening of a horizon and a sense of emerging from the darkness of life – whether it is from its fetishistic side, or from the current state of the world.
The genius of Green can further be seen within the intersection of making pieces look like sculptures, or inflatable art in this case, and combining them with utilitarian wearable fashion that hooks, attaches and gives itself a completely new meaning within the conceptual, making for garments that thrill us with a story that we get to finish off ourselves and transcend in our personal context. At last, emerging out of our cocoon, Craig Green reminded us that it is finally time to expand our new horizons, and take on the new chapter of life, and embrace as much space as possible.
