Charles Jeffrey's DSM New York Diary

In 2016, Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY landed with a bang in New York. The brand, which encompasses fashion, art, music, performance, and most recently homeware, may have been born from the currents of the underground music scene in London, but quickly spread its wings with a debut installation at Dover Street New York in 2018.

In recent years, the label has moved its runway shows to Milan, putting down roots in the local art and music communities; something Jeffrey told SHOWstudio was 'an opportunity for lots of people to be a part of [the] brand’. With a global, cult following, it only made sense that for the re-launch of their permanent DSM NYC space, Jeffrey did what he does best: to design and construct an immersive, all-encompassing LOVERBOY experience.

Centred around an artist's installation that also functions as a retail space, a new set piece takes the form of an industrial archway. Nodding to the brand's A/W 23 show titled Engine Room, based on a fictional world inspired by the Scottish artist and playwright John Byrne that came complete with oil slicked faces and industrial smoke, the new Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY DSM NYC installation is made up of pipes and industrial wheels. Sculptural stereograms of sorts, look closer and you'll find mechanical faces and comical characters of LOVERBOY's imagined, yet very real, world within.

Projects such as this one offer a designer the opportunity to create immersive, artistically-driven experiences that anyone - beyond that of a fashion show invite list - can visit themselves.

Here, Jeffrey shares the process.

Hi, it's me Charles Jeffrey, and today I drew a picture of a rail. I think it looks really beautiful; I decided to do something really chaotic, quick, inky and drippy like the oils of the Engine Room, the collection which inspires this rail. We then took it to this amazing 3D renderer, who was able to translate it exactly as the sketch goes which we were really, really happy about. And that is day one!

Day two on our amazing trip creating this rail. So, obviously you need to be inspired by things and here we compiled some of the materiality we were thinking of for the construction of the rail and the illustration. I was looking at abstract industrial spaces, mainly looking at cinematography where it's a bit subverted rather than actually functional. We were looking at Tim Burton-esque elements, thinking about objects which are anamorphic and also with this kind of post-industrial kind of thing and then looking at how it could be clad with chicken wire and other things as well. We then also looked into optical illusions. 

This is us at Argon Props in Queens in New York, they're a lovely group of guys, really helpful. They initially created a rail from 3D rendering and painted it black and left me to then just go in there and go absolutely crazy. I had the most amount of fun! I love painting ontop of things and creating textures, colours, shapes and glittery moments. We worked with Niko who is in the next picture...

Here's my little helper Niko, who is a TikToker, make-up aficionado and also studies at FIT. He just felt right for this as he is a big fan of LOVERBOY and is a make-up expert so I thought it would be really interesting to have someone like that come in and use their make-up expertise and using it for creating sculpture. So, it was a really successful time, really great to get to know him, and I think I've made a new friend!

And last but not least, the final product of the project. It's the rail, it's absolutely beautiful. It's gorgeous. We have the bunny ear beanie hats on top and the product hanging below. It just really makes it complete with the colours of the clothing matching the colours of the rail fabulously. I just love my life; I love my job. It's just amazing being me, being in New York, and thank you to Dover Street Market.