Craig Green's triumphant return to the runway

Craig Green's triumphant return to the runway

Craig Green is back after a two season hiatus from the runway, and the Fall/Winter 2022 collection was worth the wait. The British designer recognized for his prodigious ability to infuse cerebral and emotional ideas into workwear garments wanted to make his customers “feel something again” this season. Physically, this was facilitated by the use of “gross” materials and “suffocating” designs, as he called it.

Green found it interesting that people like to wear clothes that are fluffy on the outside for the appearance instead of wanting to experience the fabric on their own skin. In turn, he made oversized knitwear with mohair peeping from the inside. The new ‘Scuba Stan’ shoe silhouette created as a part of his ongoing collaboration with Adidas, in fact encases the shape of Stan Smiths; yet again something only meant for the wearer to experience.

The use of dramatic inflatable pieces and latex valves in clothing referenced the image of a man living with his body confined inside an iron lung to assist his breathing, that had Green had found “dark but nice”. The explorations with dichotomy almost suggested a sexual undercurrent: pleasure and suffocation, comfort and repulsion. As if to contradict the darkness, the looks themselves were teeming with bright colour and optimism. It all epitomized the essence of Craig Green: subversive but poetic.