WAIT @ LFW: A-Cold-Wall, fashion forward

A-Cold-Wall fw19

In the 60s, London sings a hymn to freedom. Through music, art and fashion. There is Twiggy but also the Beatles. David Bailey takes his first steps in photography. The street-style is born: women wear long dresses during the day, combining them with leather boots or opting for the newborn miniskirt desired by the designer Mary Quant. No rules, everyone is free to do what he wants. Today it’s not like that anymore: even the casual look given by jeans, a white t-shirt and a sneakers, refers to a precise aesthetic and social group. Most people absorb what they see on social media or in glossy magazines and behave accordingly. Rare are the brands critics to this modus operandi. One of these small realities is A-Cold-Wall, whose statement is to make the wardrobe of the men and women of the new millennium unique, personal and well-kept.

A-Cold-Wall fw19

With the fall-winter 2019 collection presented these days in London, during the Fashion Week, the project founded by Samuel Ross represents a step forward, not only for himself but also for the industry in general: it shows that dressing all the days is not only an automatic act but also a creative process that everyone is required to do every morning to go to work or in the evening when it’s time to change and go out. That’s why boys and girls alternate on the catwalk, some dressed in suits including sweatshirts, jackets and trousers echoing – a figure, in short, already seen in the past and in the present -, others, which act as a point and head of the story, displace plexiglass sculptures emerge; art, a targeted creative process.

A-Cold-Wall fw19

If the degree at De Montfort University represents the precise, rational and formal side of Ross, external inputs, cultural stimuli nurture the irrational, instinctive part. The result is therefore a collection of elegant clothes, heterogeneous, but never placed and combined in a confusing way.

A-Cold-Wall fw19

Buyers appreciate this dichotomy, especially if they notice the positive response from the social networks – more and more relevant, for better or for worse – and the media. But to estimate the work of A-Cold-Wall are also investors, those who know how to smell talent and profit together: after the announcement of a turnover of eight million euros, the 27-year-old has seen funds come from companies based in Italy, which – as British Vogue explains – allowed him to develop the handicraft aspect of production. And it shows it, in fact. Not to mention the collaboration with Nike, designed for true fetishists. And the installations, which enjoy an excellent response from the art critic and an entire page dedicated on the website of the brand. Fashion as a culture at three hundred and sixty degrees. Many people have not understood this and remain behind, others make it their leitmotif and embellish one of the most interesting collections of recent years.

a-cold-wall.com