It’s not uncommon for fashion designers to use their platforms to commentate on socio-political affairs, but few do so as intrinsically as Daniel W Fletcher, who, after graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2015, went on to establish an eponymous London-based menswear brand with disruption at its core.
“It’s all about starting a conversation and encouraging people to look at the world in different ways,” Fletcher tells Square Mile.
“For as long as I can use my platform to make positive change then that’s what I’ll do.”
For Fletcher, positive change is manifest in everything from the presentation-slash-protest he staged outside the LFW show space back in 2016 to the brand’s use of northern textile mills local to where he grew up.
It’s a kind of integrity that is rare enough from the labels that can afford it – let alone a start-up on a shoe-string budget – and the reason Fletcher’s label has garnered a cultish following of young men disenfranchised by Brexit, climate change, and the establishment.
You have to be prepared to take risks and only dress for yourself
“Though there’s a strong British heritage influence in my work, I always try to design in an elegant way people wouldn’t normally associate with tradition. It’s contemporary menswear with a sense of familiarity.”
No surprise then how easy it is to find yourself distracted from the brand’s ethos by Fletcher’s trademark clean-lined sportswear and lean tailoring – something the designer says is integral to any well-dressed man’s wardrobe:
“You have to be prepared to take risks and only dress for yourself, while always knowing what suits you. I make these denim jean/jacket combos and I literally wear one every day so it becomes a bit of a uniform.”
