Alphamale VS Underdog by NS Menswear is the most recent collection of recent UWE Fashion Design graduate Naomi Staniland. Naomi’s designs always derive from a sportswear silhouette – ‘if you strip everything back it’s ultimately a really complex tracksuit, pair of trackies or a bomber jacket’. Also a fan of avant garde fashion, she is influenced by designers such as Walter Van Beirendonck and the works of the Antwerp Fashion Department. Naomi never designs with an end customer in mind; her collections each time are based around a muse who she says is ‘usually some skinhead guy’.
For AW14, it seems to me that N[S] has combined her love of street wear with avant garde fashion to create what I believe is a striking, thought-provoking and slightly unsettling collection which also embodies an element of cool and wearability. As the title suggests; the collection depicts the constant power struggles we see in society through the Alphamale and Underdog characters.
I see the collection split into two stories – the ‘Alphamale’; representing gangs, body builders and boxers which is created through powerful silhouettes and oversized pieces made of a dark colours and fabrics such as thick jersey, waxed cotton and neoprene.
The ‘Underdog’ draws influences from animal cruelty, femininity perceived as weakness and femininity in a male and is created through a combination of softer, lightly coloured fabrics such as sheer, floaty and ‘feminine’ materials that generate a feeling of vulnerability and reference femininity and cross dressing in men.
Naomi collaborated with up-and-coming print designer Charlie O’Byrne to develop the printed fabrics and not forgetting the talented photographer Dean Stephen Davies who photographed the Alphamale VS Underdog collection.
Look out for N[S] Menswear’s t-shirt range that is set for release before Christmas.
Clothing - N[S] Menswear
Photography - Dean Stephen Davies
Website: N[S] Menswear
