Skepta admitted he hadn’t eaten in more than a day during a preview of his Mains collection at his Soho studio. It was just over 24 hours before the artist presented his debut LFW show in the Art Deco space of London’s Banking Hall, and he was feeling nervous. “I feed on butterflies,” he said as he stretched out on a couch surrounded by monsters, while his head of design, Mikey Pearce, attached rivets to a pair of leather shorts in a corner, and siblings Oscar and Emilia Boateng did it tried. looks in an improvised casting in the other.
A lot is riding on the Mains reboot for the British grime star, who is currently enjoying a new side job as a house DJ in Ibiza, although he insists he has already achieved his goals for the label. These included securing a magazine cover (he featured Mains on the cover of ES magazinethe style supplement of the London Evening Standard); launching a cult product (he claims the caps he designed, which will go on sale exclusively at Dover Street Market on Sunday, have raised numerous questions since their debut); and taking an iconic campaign photo (they shot the campaign in New York last week and he’s pretty sure they succeeded).
A quick summary: Skepta founded Mains in 2017 with support from a major sportswear brand. When that relationship ended, he struggled for about a year to regain exclusive control, after which he negotiated a new deal with Puma. The German sports brand provides production assistance and has collaborated with them on a sneaker. But the embroidery comes from his own deft hand. He pulled out one with the M of the Mains logo in beads and rhinestones. “This took me about two days. For me, creativity means attention to detail, patience and searching the library,” he says. “I don’t limit my talent to one thing.” Moreover, as a child he made his own clothes.
The collection is inspired by things Skepta wants to wear now, combined with some Miami references, influenced by a recent trip. He describes his style as ‘hood luxe’. He explained, “No matter how nice I think I am, I walk into a room and people look at me and say, ‘You’re the guy from the street.’ It doesn’t matter what I do. So I like to take something to the next level: a tracksuit with a shirt and tie.” Other things he’s feeling now: 90s-style leather trousers, wide embroidered indigo denim dungarees, school uniform-style sweaters and shorts, white bouclé wool suits with a sporty look.
The denim and leather looks suited the crowd best at this show, which was held on a giant Astroturf tennis court in the middle of Banking Hall. His friends showed up in droves to support him: his ex-girlfriend Naomi Campbell sat in the front row, just behind Givenchy creative director Matthew Williams and designer Ozwald Boateng, musicians Stormzy and Little Simz, and presenter Louis Theroux. But the best ensemble went to Alton Mason on the runway, where he showed off his Naomi-inspired style in a sloppy suit with Puma sneakers, a metal-tipped umbrella dramatically clutched to his chest. The Mains team would do well to lean further into that jazzy vibe next season. Yet this show was, as Skepta wisely put it, more of a mood setter: “We’re just trying to make a great brand so that when people say the word Mains voltage, it’s a nice feeling. I don’t want to run too fast.”
