At a whopping 6ft 6in, you’d be hard-passed to miss Luke Derrick — but his sleek, very smart menswear designs, which he presented at his debut London Fashion Week show in February, are altogether more subtle.
It makes a change from some emerging designers who lean into the shock factor in a bid for recognition, and he is finding success in his quiet sophistication — a confidence perhaps helped by his insight into the industry; his father, Robin Derrick, was the longtime creative director of British Vogue. ‘Phoebe Philo and Daniel Lee talk about this process of making and making, then editing down — when you are a tiny studio you can’t test or trial like that. I just don’t have the money,’ he says. ‘I’m slow but I don’t change my mind.’
He produces all his clothes between his Bethnal Green studio and a sampling studio in Haringey — ‘Everyone tells you to try and get it done cheaper in Portugal, but it’s a great local studio and I’m proud to have that Made in London tag on it,’ he quips — and takes inspiration from his night walks back home to Spitalfields.
‘There are second-gen Bangladeshi kids wearing all black, Nike shell suits and some beautiful kaftans — you have a mix in Bethnal Green where sportswear, heritage and tradition and a kind of tech organically flow together. No one is thinking, “Oh, I’m gonna really be subversive today” — it’s just comfortable. That to me is a lot more London than very English dressing, or trying to look like James Bond.’
As for his style icons, he has men who wear the clothes (and not vice-versa) as pin-ups. Fendi designer Stefano Pilati is up there, ‘not just his designs, but as a man he is in command of his own self expression’. Also Ryuichi Sakamoto, the late Japanese composer and musician, ‘not because there are epic fit pics — but every single photo of him that you can find he looks like an individual.’ That is brand Derrick.
DERRICK autumn/winter 2024:
