Symonds Pearmain: A New Chapter For London's Brilliant New Brand

When Symonds Pearmain first appeared during London Fashion Week, it was the talk of the town. The brand's remarkable set-up, which saw Lily McMenamy theatrically assume various roles while dressed in their designs, was part salon show, part performance art - and if that sounds a little "student show gone wrong", rest assured it was brilliant.

"When I went to Vivienne Westwood's first show, it was just so amazing, like nothing I had ever come across before," explains one half of the brand, Anthony Symonds. "And I suppose [our presentation] was partly to do with wanting to recreate that sense of uncertainty." Accordingly, they enlisted McMenamy as their muse (besides being a model, she is currently studying at mime school in Paris), dressed her in cut-out leggings and ruffled track tops, and shouted out instructions like "depressed cheerleader!", while changing her into various outfits. It was electric.

What is so particularly compelling about Symonds Pearmain is that the brand has managed to harness the DIY excitement that often accompanies an emerging project and blend it with the experience of its founders. Symonds is an industry mainstay, having worked with the likes of John Galliano and Westwood in the 1990s before setting up his own label; Max Pearmain is an esteemed stylist who works for the likes of Vogue and Chloé. The two first met when Pearmain came across one of Symonds's garments in a magazine, thought it was "the best thing [he] had ever seen" and subsequently sent him an email. They met, realised they were both tired of an industry that often settles into comfortable familiarity and started "just making some work together."

Fast forward to this weekend and they are staging their first London catwalk show as part of Fashion East's seasonal extravaganza. "This time we are on the schedule but we're not going to be showing two collections every year in London," they say. "It just depends on what feels right, and what's interesting."

While the pieces that have previously been worn in their presentations have been sold in numbered editions through an art gallery, now they will be offering clothes intended to go into retail-friendly production runs: hand-printed, twisted rugby shirts; trousers cut with volume. "At the beginning, there wasn't a great meta-strategy behind it all - we were just searching for a brand that was honest," explains Symonds. "Now, designing things to become accessible - on our terms - is quite interesting."

The pieces themselves speak to the zeitgeist in fashion design; they are, in their words, "about taking generic things as a starting point… the basic building blocks of the clothes we all wear." Accordingly, there is denim (printed; plain; jacquard); polyester; T-shirts - but all warped into weirdness.

"The core here is knowledge," says Symonds; "you can only fuck with something when you know it well," continues Pearmain. They're right - there's an exacting precision in the form and finesse of each piece, and an elegance in their finish which speaks of experience. "When you see a piece from McQueen, you know it from 50 feet away - you can see that guy knew how to cut. And there really hasn't been anyone since then who knows anything about cutting," says Pearmain, before stopping and laughing. "So, there's your headline: 'Symonds Pearmain: The New McQueen'." Who wouldn't want to go and see that?