Native Youth S/S’14 Collection

The clothes may make the man but, in order for them to do so, the man must design, refine and make the clothes, first. A quick flick through the spring/summer 2014 lookbook of nascent Manchester-based menswear label, Native Youth, confirms this symbiotic interplay between man, the clothing creator, and man, the model and muse; plus, it also confirms that, though this might only be their second S/S’14 collection, the team behind Native Youth certainly know their stuff.

Over the past season there has been a subtle shift from the A/W’13 collection’s almost oxymoronic synthesis of darkness and delicacy – which acted as the perfect foundation for the insouciant, ethereal cool of not only the long-locked, semi-seraphic, model Chris Arundel, but any of Native Youth’s burgeoning band of loyal customers – to the present focus of utilising their heady colour palette and time-honoured tailoring prowess to maximum effect; and tempering the unabashed boldness of a floral-print two-piece, lime socks, lily-white sandals, and a fierce peroxide buzz cut – all sported superbly by Chuck Achike – into something that connotes confidence and an adventurous streak, but that is also highly accessible. For, at Native Youth, aesthetics aren’t the only way to convey brand’s ethos; Arundel and Achike aren’t mere mannequins, there to be adorned and overlooked – they are the quintessence of the collections made flesh, there to be adorned, admired and assimilate the qualities of the everyman, whilst still retaining that which sets them apart.

With all of this in mind, it’s little wonder Native Youth were shortlisted for Drapers’ Young Fashion Brand of the Year in 2013: everything, from the constant evolution – both internal and external – that greets today’s youth, to the retrospective air that limns latter-day popular culture, is drawn in to their designs, resulting in clothes that are relevant and ready to wear, anywhere; no nonsense British fashion at its finest.