Talent spotting: Stefan Cooke and Jake Burt

The rise of the London menswear duo

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Stefan Cooke and Jake Burt have never paid much attention to the rule book, as evinced by the unveiling of their Spring/Summer 2021 collection outside of September’s four-day London Fashion Week schedule. The duo’s latest biannual showcase comprised a mostly digital schedule of fashion films, in contrast to their offering back in January, when they presented a “skeleton orchestra” set designed by Zechariah Miah as the backdrop for a collection that - rather presciently, as it turned out - they called The End.

Originally, the meaning behind the title was to do with the two designers celebrating their brand’s idiosyncratic style: in the three years since its launch, Stefan Cooke has been pushing the boundaries of menswear through innovative textile techniques. Yet arguably, the collection did mark an ending, and not only of life as we knew it, thanks to the Covid pandemic. Gone too is the perception of the duo as “young designers”, following a series of increasingly confident collections and their success in building an ever-growing list of international stockists.

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