About Me
I'm Max, a menswear designer from the University of Brighton.
My designs centre around ideas of English masculinity, gravitating towards traditional garments reimagined for the modern man. My work is semi-autobiographical, inspired by my own experiences and personal style choices. My designs are intended to be pitched at the luxury sector, with attention to detail and materiality at the centre of my practice.
My work is firmly grounded in menswear, with key items like tailored coats, shirting and trousers forming the building blocks of my looks. Accessories are also central to my designs, with bags and small leather goods punctuating the looks. Experience in industry has helped me to define this design identity; from working showrooms, managing press, and organising shows at E. Tautz to refining my research and technical skills at Tom Ford, these experiences enabling me to fortify my design handwriting and skills.
INSPIRATION
My inspiration is derived from my upbringing in the English countryside.
My collection explores the archetypal English man, exploring the vulnerability and gentility I believe should be present in this ideal. My motivation is to determine a balance between fragile elegance and masculine virility. Tropes of traditional English public school and countryside clothing such as tailoring, cable knit, Barbour jackets and cricket jumpers are reinterpreted to form new notions of English masculinity.
My muse is a young aristocrat, born into but not adhering to the inherited ideals of English masculinity, instead adopting his own free willed approach; akin to characters such as Sebastian Flyte of Brideshead Revisited, and Rupert Everett’s portrayal of queer defiance and fragility in the face of British tradition in Another Country. The spirit of Cecil Beaton’s delicate male portraits, and the languor of Deborah Turbeville’s photographs inform the mood, instilling a sense of ease and languor.
MY WORK
PORTFOLIOS
DETAIL
I created a range of bags and small leather goods to sit alongside my collection.
The detail-oriented approach to design of the clothing continued into the accessories, with details such as topstitch, tortoiseshell print linings and zip-pulls brought across. My aim was to create accessories that were not only visually appealing but also fully functional pieces, designed to be interchanged and layered. I designed a range of bags and small leather goods to work for day-to-day life, ensuring necessary items such as water bottles, sunglasses and credit cards remain easily accessible. Bag straps are all buckled and adjustable, enabling them to be worn at varied heights.
'The motivation behind this collection is to determine an epicene balance between fragile elegance and masculine virility.'
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