“I LIKE THINGS TO BE A BIT DERANGED IN A WAY. I DON’T REALLY LIKE CONVENTION – I LIKE TO QUESTION THINGS, I DON’T THINK PEOPLE DO THAT ENOUGH.”
The collection in question, titled, “I Only See Oxygen”, was a dark affair, built on his signature, “unhinged, romantically strange” charms. Rather than design within his favoured palette of navy, khaki and neutrals (“simply the colours I like, and like to see people in”), Kelly experimented more with black. “I normally shy away from it,” he tells me. “That’s why I wanted to work with it this season, and really push myself to create a collection focused on shape. I always like to challenge myself a bit – I can’t just do bloody green collections for a lifetime.” The choice also unleashed the opportunity to use much favoured artist, Francis Bacon, as a jumping off point. “His art has always resonated with me,” Kelly explains. “Because I always like to distort and mutate clothing anyway. It was the perfect timing to use him as a reference, and to build a story around that.”
The result is what James himself refers to as a, “nightmarish jazz scene”, though he is also open to the suggestion of, “Gatsby on acid.”
“I like that!” He enthuses. “I kind of wanted it to be like… do you know the Japanese series Silent Hill? It kind of has two different dimensions. So I wanted the collection to have darker dimensions too, to make everything nightmarish; to take you to a darker place.” To do this, Kelly worked with wool for the first time, alongside the heavy cottons and nylons for which he’s known. Details came from a take on tailoring, a technique that before was somewhat elusive to the designer, and he insists that his methods of working avoid the formulaic. “I always feel I have a ‘make it up as I go along’ kind of vibe,” he explains, “it’s trial and error. I guess I’m just a bit more sporadic when I work than most.”
Though this might be the case when it comes to his methods, the development of his concepts have become much more refined. “Having that editing eye is something I’m a lot better at now,” he tells me. “Editing was quite hard when I was studying. I think there’s a lot of pressure as a student, as that collection is your chance to say exactly who you are. Sometimes less is so much more, and now I have time to focus on myself as a designer. I can now say who I am.” Which is? “I like things to be a bit deranged in a way. I don’t really like convention – I like to question things, I don’t think people do that enough.”