Alex Wolfe: Sexual Sportswear

Alex Wolfe speaks softly but wields a distinct vision for alien subversions floating beneath careless acts of maleness. He combines fascinations around form — the male body — and function — the male body at work — into buff balls of clay (seasonal clothes) that result from observations of men as Wolfe exists on the fringes of conservative British mores.

Wolfe did not relate much to 9 to 5 work with standardised corporate dress. Growing up, locker rooms were uncomfortable, yet somewhat arousing, out-of-body experiences. He had little choice but to try applied art out as a career path. He’s not bad! Wolfe interned with us at SHOWstudio in 2015. His mind for warped combinations of the full-time job and physical fitness was mentored by Walter Van Beirendonck in 2018. Two years later, Wolfe aroused an audience of peers (plus Hamish Bowles) with a Central Saint Martins MA collection filled with office objects that seduced suits for the working man. Lycra and jersey, Alex Wolfe trademarks, made hard love to formal pinstriped trousers. Plastic zipper teeth from windbreakers edged his white cotton business shirts to near climax. Office chairs bulged from spandex tops. Biking shorts were no longer made to transport you to the job. They became the job.

After winning the Gucci-sponsored Menswear Artsthread Award that same year, Wolfe collaborated with Birkenstock to combine aspects of motorbiking and hiking into a sandal. It got released in 2021, the year his second collection was too. Once again stuffing spandex and flexible notions to reconstitute just what is casual Friday helped Alex Wolfe form an identity: unexpected combinations of masculine conventions designed for real life.

This new year brings the Alex Wolfe S/S 25 collection. Wolfe took time last summer to catch up with an old friend from school to discuss his new clothes, post-graduate work and life, plus menswear mindsets in the 2020s, also known as the big flat now.

M-C Hill: It's crazy how time has flown by! 2020 felt lethargic, then 2021 had a certain slowness. Seems like ever since 2022, it's been whooooosh!

Alex Wolfe: I had this kind of break around graduation and Covid. I did some work, experimental tests and did a very short collection. I had time to understand where I fit. What I like to do was encouraged by the MA course. Then it's like, where does this really fit in real life?

M-C.H: You're not driven by a schedule. You're driven by the moment. In 2021, you released that small collection. Now you've got the new one. So is it perfectionism? Is it OCD? Instinct? Could it be all three?

One thing I struggle with at SHOWstudio is timeliness. For example, I was supposed to do Homme Plus and Junya reviews. I didn't put them out. Just didn't. Or maybe couldn’t. Doubt blocks execution a lot. Sorting through fears is a struggle against the clock. The shows were like, three weeks ago. Yet it doesn't ‘matter’ anymore. I could put those out tomorrow, and that insane sincerity might make Kawakubo-san happy. Resonance can be relative in this industry. We get in our own heads. Even if it's with an organization or company, if you put something out and it has an effect, then there you go. What do you think?

AW: If you're writing or covering something, because the industry is moving so fast, it's almost like you want to maintain relevance in that moment, I suppose?

That's for both of us. If you write about something too late after, the moment's kind of gone. If you're creating new collections too inconsistently, maybe people will lose interest as well?

M-C.H: So many people chase their tails around the same thing at the same moment. Give it a month. Give it a week to bake. If it's good and thorough, the idea will connect. Your first collection out of school connected because of the casting. Casting and colour. They were the continuity of what you were doing. Industrial design, but also an aerodynamic feeling moving into a business realm. Combined with incredibly sexy casting, it resonated. Between the trigger colour and your casting, if that's identifiable from your work, it pulls focus. It doesn't have to be in September or June anymore.

AW: I see what you're saying. At that time, it was a bit experimental. Since then, I've been working on having a solid base to build on in a shorter space of time. I'm excited by first having some sort of business foundation before being able to explore more creative ideas with it.

M-C.H: As you've been tweaking everything, are you at USP or is it still evolving?

AW: Still evolving. Even as I'm making this project, I'm looking at some of the things that I've needed to make to reject. It would be so much easier if I could just draw something and decide that's not right. For some reason, I have to go through the full thing, to see it made on a body to get the feeling of it. You get a real taste then. It's like ‘Oh, that's it! It's totally in one piece!’ There could be 15 pieces and only two of them are in the right direction.

I enjoy the idea of surreal sportswear in a much more playful way. So there is space for something a bit more free because you're taking it out of its function. Also it's a very masculine world, which you know, I like this idea, but it's also something…

M-C.H: To rebel against?

AW: Yes. The idea of it being more joyful or playful rather than an aggressive, competitive masculinity.

M-C.H: One annoying thing is the poisonous heterosexualisation of men's fashion. You touched on the competitive aspect of it. Bringing this weird testosterone energy into it. When you want to relish ideas, clothes and the exciting potential of sportswear instead. It's not about acquiring or cataloging the season to prove something to an audience, to validate your own insecurity. That's not menswear. That’s baseball card collecting.

AW: [laughing] Oh that’s great.

M-C.H: What was the reaction from people coming in and out of the studio?

AW: It was really good. I had a small showroom in my studio. There wasn't much of a menswear schedule in London.

M-C.H: There were two shows. Only two! Craig and Loverboy.

AW: It was nice that people came to see it. We shot it in April, quite a while ago. We got the lookbook together, designed the layout and the logo. I'm excited to do the next one and start working on my own website.

M-C.H: If you have ten customers, you can build off that ten. Stavros [Karelis] is important because it’s Machine-A, but Stavros is caring. He's a good human with good taste. You can have a nice, constructive back and forth. Doing it yourself, web sales and having a dedicated customer base could be it.

The collections don’t speak for themselves at retail level. If Alex Wolfe has designed this collection, it's up to retailers to communicate their buy to their customer base. In that way a structure from design to retailers to customers can work. If someone walks by looking at your work, retailers should talk it up. The jacket won’t jump into a customer’s pocket. Talk them into it, explain the designer, why they carry you, blah, blah, blah. Retailers just don't do that enough. It's irritating. A good way around it is do it yourself, have it available on your website…honestly.

AW: I've also heard a lot about retail not being in a great place.

M-C.H: They're fearful too, you know?

AW: [laughs] Yeah, the luxury level in retail probably only sells when it's slashed in price by 60%. Having a website and selling my own stock, before I was a bit uncertain but now it's essential to have your own channel.

M-C.H: Do you know your customer? In terms of customer awareness and DNA, who is this specific Alex Wolfe person?

AW: Well, I've always modeled it after myself. In my kind of buying habits, what I'm attracted to. I don't have a wardrobe full of luxury items. If something spoke to me, then there is surely a profile: a guy or girl my age, my kind of taste or interest that would also be interested in it.

M-C.H: Those defined essentials. Not like a list of GQ essentials, but your quintessentials.

AW: That's maybe not what a business person would do. Maybe that's the worst ever thing to do in business.

M-C.H: What are your essentials? What do you find to be sexy, luxurious, essential?

AW: Underlayers. Lycra. Some kind of sensuality that is kind of peeking through, you know?

M-C.H: I remember your first collection highlighting the breastbone. You don't see that often. You usually see pecs or biceps. You don't normally see the breastbone being incredibly erotic.

AW: I love that. It was creating windows to target parts of the body. It's so instinctual to me. The male body and its sensuality is inherent in my work because that's who I am. That's a key thing. It's a tightrope to almost be sensual menswear, but also not something that's…

M-C.H: Hypersexual?

AW: Right. The key pieces are these second skin layers that have sportswear elements. It's something about the transition of changing fast and seeing these clothes interacting with each other. There’s something sexy about these combinations happening when you're not really thinking about it. It makes me think about a locker room.

M-C.H: How did you feel about locker rooms growing up? How do you feel now?

AW: It was always such a terrifying place.

M-C.H: Girl. Like, girl. GIRL.

AW: Right?

M-C.H: Yes.

AW: It's something I'm revisiting now to change the narrative slightly because it’s always been something I ‘should be’ scared of. That was when I was younger, you know, not really understanding myself and being scared of the world around me. I felt alien in these hypermasculine environments. Now I'm switching this narrative upside down. Not just with a locker room, but a few different storylines. Very corporate environments. Now I'm sort of creating my own version.

M-C.H: What you just said is the feeling of this new collection. Your corporate world. Not the MA. The blue sexy one. That was more of your explanation of locker room subversions. This new collection is the business dystopia necessary for you to exist in.

AW: It has been about turning these things upside down with a new kind of uniform. Trying to create new uniformity out of displaced elements together. The hoodies are a new piece. There are two tailored coats here. The shorts are a new addition. In the way that…

M-C.H: They come off the bottom? They like, bounce. You've always done your type of strong tailoring. You tailor really well on the lower body, it's always lycra tight, which is essential.

AW: Some of the lycra stuff that I've done before, there needs to be some pieces that can be worn in real life. There was a bit more focus on a different style of trousers.

M-C.H: What's the fabric content of those trousers Alex?

AW: A wool blend. One pair is slightly more sportswear focused with this kind of elastic…

M-C.H: Okay thank you! That's what I was looking for! The waistband is similar to boxing ones.

AW: It pushes in a less formal direction. Also the pocket details are slightly less formal. In the back, there are patch pockets. So a much more casual trouser in wool. These elements are also mirrored in the shorts.

M-C.H: Was it suiting wool Alex?

AW: The black wool shorts are actually more like the black jacket. So it’s quite heavy. The shorts and trousers also have layers underneath. The pinstripe printed skin shorts are under all of the looks.

M-C.H: The sexual base layer.

AW: Yeah. I feel like that's a key thing. We did this lycra businessman shirt with a button down. It's playing off these city muscle boys, you know, which makes me think of Wall Street types going to the gym.

M-C.H: People that go to the gym between 4:30 and 7:00 p.m.! It's the worst time ever to go because of that awful, congested finance bro thing. It's just, ugh! Then they change out their clothes and it's just like ugggggghhhhhh!

AW: [laughing] Yes! You really pinpointed a type of masculinity there that is very specific.

M-C.H: Specifically gross.

AW: Yeah, it's very intense. I suppose it's just putting it in a different narrative.

M-C.H: This could be inaccurate. Or just bad memory. Was this the return of the chair shirt items coming back? I don't think the first collection out of Saint Martins had the chair stuff. How did you decide to reintroduce that to the world? Why did you pause it? And why does it not feel like a stunt, just quite natural.

AW: That's great to hear, because I was thinking whether or not it was right to do. When I did it in blue for the MA, it was so memorable because it encapsulated the spirit of what I’m doing in one piece. Something not fitting right or not fitting in the right box. The chair inside it is a sleek, form-fitting thing. When you take it out, on the body, it becomes completely alien. That is what the logo is inspired by. A square peg in a round hole. That's the reason I chose to do it again. It's very important to understand that the conceptual show element is still very important.

M-C.H: You knew you were onto something once you got the logo right. A perfect but imperfect thing. It's shoe-horning, but organic in the way you shoehorned. You make it fit when it doesn't fit. That's your process. Disrupting the perfect item…little Dirk Bikkembergs there, too.

AW: [laughs loudly] Which I love!

M-C.H: That's your casting, too.

AW: Did I mention that before at some point?

M-C.H: Nope.

AW: [laughs] I do love that you said that. I remember when I first went to CSM and was looking at the books. Bikkembergs was definitely there. I suppose it was really the male body that was so important in their designs. He was dressing the athlete.

AW: Dressing the male body is a foundation of where it sort of starts. Especially now. This turning point with social media and how the male body is portrayed over the last, maybe 10 to 15 years. How that is drastically altering young minds. What the base level male body should look like is completely distorted now. That's a fascinating topic to explore in fashion by using different types of bodies.

M-C.H: Sadly in fashion, we get less hardcore proposals. No push against whatever is popular now, only outfitting what is popular. So you see fashion designers who can make clothes end up being stylists just by feeding the beast. It's really sad. Since 2021, you've seen how the body's been more revealing in menswear and wider male clothes culture. There's nothing salacious anymore about showing it off. Particularly because they’re not creative enough. If you're gonna do some Kenneth Anger or Bruce La Bruce type sh*t, okay show it off. But these straight boys are not clever enough to do that. So they just walk around shirtless. Cover it up. I'm sorry, cover it the f*ck up.

What you do is important in that way, because you're observing contemporary psychology. The elasticated waistband is very locker room. The way that men get dressed is kind of haphazard. They don't think about the way they fold something, a lack of consideration sometimes. The elasticated waistband is endemic of that. It's representative of sportswear, of sport-ing and competition. All that psychology integrated into one f*cking waistband is really brilliant. You can overthink it or just say, oh this is a new way to do a trouser. Then you buy it.

AW: That effortlessness!

M-C.H: Which is also menswear! It's so funny how you can psychotically go into tailoring to design this articulated, unpadded jacket. But it looks effortless when you put it on. It has to end like that. The boy in the lookbook in black, but the way the lighting hit, it looked black and aqua. Then there was wind underneath the coat. So it looks heroic, but also effortless.

AW: There's something heroic about it for sure. I like that idea.

M-C.H: How did the shirred pieces come about? Some of the shirts were not sheer, but like, shirred. I don't think you've done that before.

AW: On the hoodie? I actually have it on a rail. So the hoodie is all at the shoulder, all gathered. It's very long.

M-C.H: It is.

AW: The armhole is quite low. You attach fabric from a button and a tab. You bring it up to the human shoulder. So it drapes naturally in the front. It gathers at the shoulder without a seam. So you can wear it as a super long hoodie, almost down to the knees. Or you change it. You can attach it at the shoulder. So it's like finishing more at the waist. And it has this kind of front drone.

M-C.H: That solves the mystery. It's not shirring. Okay.

AW: Yeah, not for that one. It's like a two way kind of thing.

M-C.H: Alex in the lookbook, those shoulders looked like coat hooks! So I thought it was some sort of integrated furniture object, but it's not.

AW: It's an epaulette. So with the button, that's how you're attaching it. The button is also at the top.

M-C.H: It's like achieving the Alex Wolfe effect without you having to spell it out. It's optional.