For Spring/Summer 18, British designer Nicholas Daley makes his London Fashion Week NEWGEN debut with the collection ‘Madras’. Since the label’s genesis in 2015, Nicholas has researched and explored existing and new perceptions of multiculturalism, drawing upon his dual heritage and the diversity he finds in British society. An initial preoccupation with British youth subcultures has grown to emphasise a deep interest in cross-cultural exchange as well as the historically significant binary of music and style.
Through collaborations with a musical artist each season, Nicholas seeks to celebrate alternative British narratives, fused with the history of counterculture movements. For Spring/Summer 2018, musicians Nabihah Iqbal aka Throwing Shade (Ninja Tune, NTS) and Golu Singh Gaba will perform Raga Yaman on the sitar and tabla, sitting amidst and reflecting the concept of the collection.
Nicholas’ personal history plays a key role in his exploration of both themes and the conception of a collection. Broadening the focus from his Jamaican heritage and the African diaspora, he has recently extended this to encompass his Scottish ancestry, investigating traditional textiles of both jute and tartan. Throughout the 19th century, with the prominence of the British textile industry, the cloths were traded across the Empire, particularly in South Asia, forming a relationship between these two very different locations.