Artist Derrelle Elijah channels 0121 in his Fred Perry collaboration

They say you can’t escape your roots – and for Birmingham-born artist Derrelle Elijah, why would you want to? Drawing deep from his heritage and family history, he’s reinvented Fred Perry​’s iconic Laurel Wreath polo, adding to the long lineage of seminal collaborators, which includes the likes of Raf Simons and Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY. For Derrelle, these personal influences seep into the collection seamlessly, vividly celebrating his home and community, going back to where it all started in Brum.

Across the decades, Fred Perry has built up a reputation as a go-to brand for a wide variety of UK subcultures and alternative scenes, counting everyone from the mods to the recent indie-sleaze and Britpop revivalists. As well as this, part of Fred Perry’s appeal lies in its grassroots approach to collaboration, teaming with rising talents like Derrelle, who live and breathe the rebel approach that’s defined the brand’s subcultural past.

Derrelle moved to London a decade ago, and recently lost his grandparents. This event, he explains, drove him back home, where he could ​“rekindle a sense of family nostalgia whilst dealing with this grief” and ​“honour the stories within his family binder,” particularly his mother’s. ​“I wanted to honour the sacrifices my mum made for me,” he says. ​“Despite being a 22-year-old single mum, she fought everything for me not to become a statistic. Looking back at the pictures of her – young, carefree and so effortlessly cool – it further reminded me how much she sacrificed to give me the life I currently have.”

On the shirt’s blank canvas, Derrelle’s family’s stories and the history of his community overlap, coming together to create a rich portrait of the places and people that make him who he is. According to Derrelle, one of the most important considerations behind the collaboration was to document underrepresented people. ​“I’d like people to see their own families within mine and my communities. I’d like people who haven’t had their story told to feel seen,” he tells THE FACE. ​“Remembering that no matter where you are, their legacies are always with us as we strive to build our own.”

This nostalgia and sentimentality is core to much of Derrelle’s work but doesn’t stop him from moving forward and constantly adapting as an artist. ​“The pace of our society doesn’t allow time for much these days,” notes Derrelle. For him, it’s about changing his focus to the present, rather than the future, whilst allowing for time to reflect on the past.

The shirt itself features watercolour paintings from Derrelle’s family photo album turned into an all-over collage print, overlaid with a poem and phrases that celebrate his hometown. In his poem, Derrelle affirms, ​“This is for us /​Our city /​Brummies /​New & Old” – a fitting ode to the city that raised him, people before him, and those to follow.

The campaign for the shirt was shot around Birmingham’s cultural hotspots, the photos stamped with Derrelle’s take on the iconic Wreath logo. Throughout, we see the legendary Bullring markets, with local trader, Sammie, who has worked there since he was seven and inherited the stall from his father.

Derrelle’s childhood barber, Bigga, also appears, as well as Rajesh (“Raju”), who revisited Handsworth Park and his family home to recreate that legendary self-portrait, first captured in creatives Derek Bishton, Brian Homer and John Reardon’s pop-up photography studio in 1979.

Elsewhere, Derrelle’s mother’s best childhood pal, Scooby, and her daughter, Bobby, are seen in their family home, and Dennis Hamilton (“Hatman”) appears in his 40-year-old shop in Brum city centre. In this vein, the collaboration is more than just a collection; it’s a meditation on the memories, places and bonds that make us who we are.