The 24-hour persona of Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY

In the heart of Central London at the iconic Somerset House, Charles Jeffrey celebrates a milestone: the ten-year anniversary of his revolutionary brand, LOVERBOY. The evening was marked by a spectacular exhibition and an exhilarating fashion show, showcasing the evolution and essence of the brand. «The collection is basically inspired by this idea of a 24 hour. So somebody who starts her day in LOVERBOY and ends her day and falls asleep in their makeup and LOVERBOY», says the creative director. Unlike his previous collections, which often explored high-concept stories and metaphors, Jeffrey focused on practicality and merchandising. «There’s lots of reference to Roman draping as well as sort of City of London fabrics. So we’ve got things like the Prince of Wales check and these extreme blue shirts, but then rendered LOVERBOY so kind of silly and sort of with a sense of humor.» Styled by Katie Grand, they included some characters from London's cultural scene to match the bold energy of the clothes. «We usually rely a lot on street casting and like to keep our ear to the ground on the city we're in, whether it's Milan or London» said the designer. «But this time I wanted to bring that big energy into the clothes as well.» 

As LOVERBOY enters its second decade, Charles Jeffrey remains committed to infusing joy and boldness into fashion. The brand continues to blend avant-garde creativity with commercial viability, carving out a unique space in the global fashion landscape, yet the SS25 collection was able to segment the successful elements of the items that are already on the market and capture a world around them. Giving these elements their own ecosystem and establishing a purposeful wardrobe around them was the real goal of the show, presented through a body of work that essentially researched how and why customers buy LOVERBOY, explained the designer. 

"10" is a visual and material milestone in LOVERBOY's history, a meditation on the enduring themes and temporalities that shape the brand's universe. Departing from the previous narrative-driven approach, "10" found its form through an exploration of 'queer time'—the idea that queerness shapes not only our sense and understandings of gender and sexuality but also our experiences of time itself and our relations to past, present, and future. The design process was led by consideration of the ways that clock-time shapes social life and thus becomes tied to expectation and notions of respectability. Nods towards nightwear and undergarments jostle against references to formality and outerwear, in a muddling of sartorial codes of labour and leisure, public and private. Through drape and deconstruction, they sought to cultivate a sense of becoming and undoing, evoking clothing pulled hurriedly around the body and the gradual unravelling of a look over the course of a day. Ringed eyes and tousled hair hint further at the realm of slumber, refracted through a distinctly post-punk sensibility. This rumination on liminality, precarity, and flux extends through the show's accompanying soundscape. Produced in collaboration with composer Luca Manning and performed by Somerset House Studios choir, the piece draws on personal experiences of queerness and transition, augmented by an improvisatory process that explores the potential of voice as both instrument and sonic texture.

"10" marks the return of the brand to London, the city that birthed it, and a wider celebration of the first decade hosted by Somerset House, home to the studio since 2016. It coincides with the opening of the first exhibition, "The Lore of LOVERBOY," and is molded by a broader reflection on the distinctly British approach to style. They continue to offer puckish takes on traditionally masculine conservative signifiers, this time from spheres of military and gamekeeping, looking to upend and question the enduring status of these symbols. The collection also nods towards the brand's own history and hero garments through new 'animal familiar takes on the iconic ears beanie and the Warholian banana motif rendered oversized and overripe in black velvet. Through the partnership with The World of Clash, they've been led back to SS18's piercing arrows, this time less "apfelschuss" and more Saint Sebastian, and a reimagining of the wedding dress finale inspired by the mobile gaming franchise's character, P.E.K.K.A. «Charles Jeffrey was one of the first creatives to join Somerset House Studios when it was established in 2016, and so all these years later, it is an honour to present this body of work as the exhibition 'The Lore of LOVERBOY' at Somerset House,» said Dr. Cliff Lauson, Director of Exhibitions at Somerset House. «LOVERBOY has quickly become a brand celebrated for its rebellious energy and fierce originality, and I'm delighted that the exhibition will launch with the unveiling of the SS25 collection. Charles has exceptional talent as a designer, artist, and creative director, and visitors will soon become enamored with his imaginative and playful style.»