Saul Nash develops his own rituals for Autumn Winter 22 Collection

For Autumn Winter 22, Saul Nash presents RITUAL: a catwalk show and fashion film exploring spirituality and British Afro-Caribbean culture.

A consistent theme runs throughout Nash’s work, which makes itself most evident in his routines; the idea of your community supporting you as you uphold them. RITUALS explores honouring family beliefs and traditions that shape you whilst making them your own as you discover unique ways of being and doing that develop or evolve those rituals.

“I was born in London to a Bajan-born Guyanese mother, and it’s always interested me how much I was immersed in these cultures in a place so far away from them. Spirituality was everywhere at home, and stories of ancestors and superstitions would set my imagination running. RITUAL is about what these ideas mean to me today, in 21st century London,” says Nash.

The fashion film takes place at Gee’s barbers, paying tribute to Gee Artery, one of London’s first barbers who died last month. A site of community for men especially, the barbershop simultaneously excludes those that do not conform to the strict rules of masculinity. Nash’s film suggests this may be changing as the lines that define what a man can be or wear become blurred against the backdrop of a Kensal Rise barbershop.

The collection exudes energy, considering the wearer’s movement a priority as seams and panels weave naturally around the body on wool tracksuits and technical zip-ups. Building on his lexicon for menswear, Nash introduces his first tailored blazer with removable sleeves. As a 2022 International Woolmark Prize finalist, innovations in wool are central to the collection. The Water spirit, often referenced in African folklore by names like Mami Wata, River Mama or Yemanya, appears on wool compression layers woven with mermaids on the back from high twist yarn.

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