Boy to man: Saul Nash gives tailoring a spin

At his first Milan show, the menswear designer took things up a notch, blending his signature sportswear with suiting.
Style
Words: Eni Subair
Saul Nash is all grown-up. While athleisure garments have always – and continue to be – embedded within the designer’s DNA, this season show was different for a few reasons: the most glaringly obvious shift is that he’s now a part of the Milan menswear cohort. “It’s always been something I’ve looked at,” says a soft-spoken Nash, fresh from his flight into the city. “I’ve always been curious and have wanted to take my craft worldwide. Travel is in my nature, and it only felt natural as a next progression for me and my work.”
If you’ve been to a Nash show, you might have grown accustomed to thumping basslines and models turning out choreographed moves on the Selfridges Old Space catwalk. Back in June, he switched things up, eschewing a show altogether in favour of a lookbook which narrated his curiosity around the movement and fluidity of the “every day man”. Refreshed after this break from tradition, for AW25, Nash has opted for a more refined offering. But that’s not to say he doesn’t have a few tricks up his nylon sleeve: “I worked with a musician who doesn’t reveal his identity. He doesn’t show his face but his score [for the show] is ethereal.”



With a new environment comes a new chance to shake things up, and Nash is seizing the opportunity with aplomb. What does Saul Nash look like beyond sportswear? Still wildly versatile, it turns out.
An ode to the world around him, Nash’s musings on tailoring encapsulate his AW25 line: “As a designer, it’s important to pinch yourself and remind yourself that you are creative.” Functionality drives the collection – cleverly kinetic-cut denim sits beside a bomber jacket, perforated leather, waterproof hats, and scarves that convert into bags. There are even some motif belts – and if a belt isn’t a signifier of a maturing wardrobe, we don’t know what is.




Subverting signature tailoring and dress codes was at the forefront of Nash’s mind here, and that meant making unpredictable moves: how does a Lulu Lemon collaboration sound for a start? The AW25 included a preview of the upcoming union. “These are two different worlds brought together by the synergy of movement and the shared interest in movement. When you step outside your comfort zone and work with people and brands who might be the polar opposite [of you], you can create things that you could never imagine.”
SLNSH, the collab line that lands next month (11th March, to be exact), is the culmination of six months’ worth of work (Nash was developing his mainline collection at the same time. When does he rest?!) and THE FACE got the first exclusive preview. The collection pays homage to Nash’s movement first, clothing second ethos, with designs that reveal and conceal taking centre stage. Mesh tops, feather-light nylon shorts and a jacket-turned-buttoned-shirt, are a few highlights in the exclusive capsule. Despite London’s loss, it seems Milan and Nash are a match made in heaven.
This season, you honed in on tailoring more than anything. Why now?
I would say, in a way, it reflects the maturing that I’ve been doing as a person. I’m now 32 and I began the brand when I was 26. As someone who always wore a tracksuit but is now leaning into wearing shirts, I wanted to know what that could look like if I designed [an entire] collection beyond sportswear. When I started my brand, it was always about cutting garments for the liberation of men through movement, so this is a renewal moment.
Were you nervous about joining the Milan men’s schedule?
I always believe in understanding your journey and your own pace at which you need to move. This has always been something that I’ve had my eye on.
How do Archetypes, your last collection, and Metamorphosis, the latest collection, tie together?
Analysing my work over the past few seasons, there’s been a definite exploration of smart dressing. But this time I really delved deep into creativity. It was important to me to continue to visualise how the men [in my world] put pieces together. There’s a spectrum for men to find themselves within the collection and it embodies the different facets of me as a person, as a designer and my community.
What was on your moodboard?
My older brothers and the people that I grew up around, and how they layered [their clothes]. For example, I’ve been wearing a bomber jacket a lot and I began thinking what a Saul Nash bomber [could] look like. Archetypes was a small glimpse into what an everyday wardrobe could be and Metamorphosis is a continuation of that, with more boundary-pushing garments.
The Lulu Lemon collab is also featured within the mainline collection. How did that come about?
I think as a designer, you’re always trying to discover or see your work in a new lens that you haven’t seen before. This allowed me to do that. Sleeves rip off jackets, trousers unzip their reveal layers and there are keyhole cut-outs too. There’s sensuality in the pieces.
What’s most exciting to you about this era of Saul Nash?
Going outside of your comfort zone doesn’t mean you’re straying away from your story. It means you’re enriching it or you’re moving it forward. Movement, to me, is a lifestyle, so movement will always be in what I design. That’s always in the back of my mind.
