Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY

 

LOVERBOY’s visual identity is steeped in Jeffrey’s autobiographical primary research. The collections are anchored by the Charles’ personal styling codes, as well as those of his friends and collaborators. The result is a potent clash of references both subcultural and traditional, Scottish and Pagan, interpreted through an illustrative, DIY approach to design.

 

The meteoric rise of the Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY label is best encapsulated by Tim Blanks for Business of Fashion: 

Looking back to look forward, the collections re-render historical references as intrinsically modern while paying respect to an ancestral line-up of costumiers, performance artists and queer icons. Jeffrey’s nightlife-influenced thirst for experimentation,  and belief in the validity of mistakes, result in a colourful tension between control and chaos.

 

LOVERBOY’s roots are fixed in London’s queer nightlife scene, having been born in 2014 as both a fashion label and a cult club night. The LOVERBOY parties, first staged while Jeffrey was studying for his Masters in fashion design at Central St Martins in London, were attended by the city’s up-and-coming artists, performers, musicians, drag queens and poets, many of whom became Jeffrey’s future muses and creative collaborators.

 

As a label born on the dancefloor, a sense of event will forever be at the heart of LOVERBOY’s output. The brand’s spectacular shows are explorations of diversity and identity. Performance, ‘dress up’ and the transformative power of make-up are hallmarks of the brand and hark back to the energy and originality of the club nights, promoting kindness, friendship and collaboration as the truest virtues of the human condition.

 

Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY is a NEWGEN recipient and has been honoured with a number of industry accolades. Upon leaving university Jeffrey quickly won two Scottish Fashion Awards, the first in 2016 as Graduate of the Year and later as Young Designer of the Year in 2017. The label has since been a finalist in the 2018 edition of the LVMH Prize and was nominated for the BFC/Vogue Fashion Fund in 2019. In 2018, Jeffrey won the British GQ Award for Emerging Designer. In 2017, he received the British Fashion Award for Best Emerging Menswear Designer - presented to him by John Galliano, Jeffrey’s hero.

 

As a stylist, Jeffrey works across special projects for some of the world's leading fashion publications. Commissions have included the creative direction of a Vivienne Westwood archive story for AnOther Man, Maison Margiela retrospective shoot (in collaboration with John Galliano) for LOVE, and a Schiaparelli haute couture story for 10+. His wider portfolio includes stories for GQ Style, Replica Man, Buffalo Zine and CANDY.

 

Jeffrey is a practicing artist. A celebrated illustrator, his artwork - developed both digitally and by hand - lives within each LOVERBOY collection. In 2018 he presented ‘The Come Up’, his first solo exhibition of sculpture in London’s NOW Gallery. Further examples of Jeffrey’s sculptural practice have also featured as part of LOVERBOY’s installation projects, most recently in Beijing and Los Angeles in partnership with Dover Street Market.