WILLIAM_RICHARD_GREEN

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“In the final days of the yuppie decade, the summer of ’89 saw a new type of youth rebellion rip through the cultural landscape, with thousands of young people dancing at illegal Acid House parties in fields and aircraft hangars around the M25. Set against the backdrop of ten years of Thatcherism, it was a benign form of revolution, dubbed the Second Summer of Love – all the ravers wanted was the freedom to party… The rave scene, along with the drug Ecstasy, broke down social barriers and even football hooligans were ‘loved up’, solving a problem the government had never managed to crack.” Taken From BBC documentary ‘Summer of Rave’ 1989, 2006. Autumn/winter 2012 sees William Richard Green take another look at the ‘uniforms’ of the British man, this season playing with the ‘Hooligans Against Acid’ movement of ‘89 as his inspiration. Here he celebrates the down-to-earth yet self aware attire of a man found in the terraces of a stadium or on the Football Special train to an away game. Simple-cut clothes crafted for longevity, followed through with technical finishes. The collection teams classic items with subtle hints of the graphic print laden, fluorescent saturated rave-wear of the ‘Second Summer of Love’. As always the brand is concerned with a British heritage, masculinity, precision detail and comfort. And for this collection this can be seen in Greens take on football-casuals where he matches utility tailoring and all-weather jackets with ease-of-movement oversized shirting. The William Richard Green staple, the polkadot, makes a fitting subtle appearance in the lining of tailoring or graphically on the sleeves of sweatshirts. In a predominantly monochrome collection Green reintroduces the rubber bomber jacket, seen in previous collections, but here found in the collections accent colour orange. Footie Hooligans may be the inspiration, but ‘three lions on a shirt’ this is not.

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About the Designer

William is based in London, United Kingdom. He studied at Central Saint Martins. His collections are produced in United Kingdom.

Like most of us, William Richard Green is all mixed-up. He grew up on an English farm and likes traditional things like solid, well-made shoes, proper knits, and well-constructed coats. He's also one half of DJ act Joe and Will Ask, who play banging techno and house, and likes staying out until lunchtime the next day. It's probably this side of Will that's responsible for the rubber tailoring and range of modernist crew necks he does.
After graduating from London's Central Saint Martins—a place William says he attended mostly in the hope of meeting interesting people—he trained on Saville Row where he learned tailoring, craftsmanship, and cut. He also worked for David David, a much-hyped wearable art label. This topsy-turvy background means Green's designs and ultra-masculine collections—based on themes such as fishermen, Vikings, Kurt Russell and Millwall FC fans—while definitely modern and definitely fashion-led, also utilise as much British-sourced fabrics as possible.
William has been profiled by publications such as Dazed, i-D, Vogue Italia, WAD, Untitled, VICE, GQ and Dansk, and has featured in Fashion East's prestigious MAN exhibitions during London Fashion Week for the last three seasons. Last year, a fashion film he made with director Zaiba Jabbar won Vogue Italia and ASVOFF's light series award and William Richard Green was selected as one of London department store Selfridges Bright Young Things for January 2012. He's also stocked in Tokyo store Eliminator thanks to a personal recommendation from Kim Jones and has dressed music acts Patrick Wolf and Everything, Everything.
In short, William Richard Green is a carefully crafted quality label that isn't boring, pretentious, or ridiculous and doesn't overdose on heritage vibes. It's just dead current.