A-COLD-WALL*’s Spring/Summer show was a highlight moment on the London calendar. The collection’s conceptual underpinnings tapped three words ‘Human. Form. Structure’, which also served as its title. This was the fourth collection presented by Samuel Ross, founder and creative director of the streetwear label (and a recent finalist in this year’s LVMH prize).
Staged in an East London warehouse, the show was – by all means – Ross’s most memorable production. Upon entry, guests were greeted with a vacuum-sealed pack of safety goggles, earplugs and a ventilation mask. This titillated the expectation of the spectacular and A-COLD-WALL* delivered on its promise. A mortar-covered army reminiscent of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Orcs (from Lord of the Rings) opened the show and cleared the way for streetwear heightened with detachable components/details that ACW is known for. Structure and form clothed each human (model) via snap pad patches, straps, asymmetrical silhouettes, and a variety of fabrics. Each look offered a different perspective and with casting by Sagaboi’s very own Marqee Miller, the ACW squadron was diverse, on brand and visibly committed to communicating the theme Ross curated.
The intercourse of structure and form birthed human trappings, and also a human. It all ended with a massive styrofoam box being broken open by the ACW orcs to reveal a naked man covered in a conceptualized embryonic fluid pushing the very structure/form that incubated him forward. Sam Ross’s intention was crystal clear… A-COLD-WALL* came to move forward the form and structure that gave it life in fashion.
Here are a few backstage shots from A-COLD-WALL*’s SS’19 show:
