“This is the first collection where every single sketch I did became an outfit: it’s sketch, outfit, sketch, outfit, sketch, outfit,” said Duckie Brown’s Steven Cox as he moved from the wall to the rack, showing which sketch became which look. “I styled from the sketches and didn’t change one thing.” The collection is almost entirely made from vintage striped cotton sourced in Greece—where Cox and his partner Daniel Silver have recently purchased a house. His expressive sketches have a cubist quality to them, as the stripes move around on his croquis. “The way they do business there is so great compared to here, it’s relaxed. It’s cigarettes and an espresso before you do anything,” Cox added.
There are 15 outfits, 36 pieces, and only one of each garment will be made. Many of them are classic Duckie silhouettes, tweaked slightly—their classic tailored double breasted coat, unlined, with “kangaroo” pockets instead of traditional ones in a bold blue and white stripe; their bomber jacket with a 10-foot-long tie that wraps around the waist “so it creates two poufs at the top and the bottom.” Paired with their super-gathered waist trousers in a matching ’70s-esque rainbow stripe, it adds yet another level of volume. They lengthened their standard shirt “to the floor” so now it’s a dress, added a four-inch pointed collar to one shirt, and a banded collar on another. Everything feels familiar.
Rounding out the stripes are paisley moments—some in wool and some in chiffon: a diaphanous dropped waist dress, satin separates, a long shirt. Cox said, “I don’t know why I added paisley into the stripes, I just liked the idea.” The pursuit of beauty doesn’t really need a justification. Cox worried about the parameters he’d given himself, but in that strictness he found a newfound ease and a freedom. And then, “We’ve already sold 12 pieces without even being on sale.”