The Official Craig Green Thread

[robinsongreen68]

that makes clearer to me the conceptual link between very utilitarian pieces like the worker jacket, and the almost tribal-looking decorated garments i've seen in pictures, thanks

 

[happyriverz]

Before diving back into the more conceptual/thematic stuff about Craig Green, since this is sales season, I just wanted to highlight some pieces on sale that I think are good (not all of which are current season).

A caveat about Craig Green sales: don't go into sales season expecting more than 50% discounts. The brand sells through at full retail quite a bit, so the sale discounts are just not going to be as good as something like Rick Owens: 30% to 50% is probably the best you are going to get. Any higher discount usually involves final sale.

Basics:

1) The basic workwear jacket:

This is about as basic of a Craig Green piece as you can get: it is now part of the core collection, and compared to the seasonal variations, this one is not quilted and has less strings/laces/holes, but obviously more wearable. It's the one that Bruce Pask wears in one of the street style pics I posted earlier.

The black colorway is on FarFetch, while the blue colorway is Slam Jam Socialism.

2) The layered shorts:

These are "basics" in the sense that they are now a part of the core Craig Green collection, produced every season in different fabrics/colors. For this current Spring/Summer 2018 season, they are produced in cotton poplin fabric. Construction-wise, these have three layers: one detachable half-apron that can be worn on the left or right side, or detached altogether. The non-detachable parts have two layers, and the outer layers have strings running along the outside seam that can be tied together, or worn loose to create a training effect. The inner layer has buttons running along the outside that again can be unbuttoned or buttoned. Length-wise, depending on your height, these can either be worn as slightly below-the-knee shorts or, if you are shorter, as three-quarters length cropped pants.

The black colorway and the blue colorway are both on FarFetch.

Current SS18 Season Runway pieces:

1) the cord-and-tunnel zip short-sleeve shirt:

This piece demonstrates a new construction technique that Craig Green debuted, which is what he calls the "cord and tunnel" technique in which two layers of cotton are stitched into tightly packed rows to create tunnels, through which sports cords were threaded. The overall effect is to make the fabric almost look like cardboard, and this cardboard effect reflects Craig Green's interest in workman-like materials/connotations, as his father and other relatives are construction workers. This cord-and-tunnel technique has been used this season on shirts, outerwear, and pants.

Note that despite the cotton material, the double-layer of cotton makes the fabric quite stiff and thus not that breathable. I have handled this piece in person, and in my view, this is best used as a layering piece, as it's not that cool to wear despite the short sleeves -- and the hidden pockets and the zipper make this more like an over-shirt to me.

The white version is on Matches (extra 20% off), although you can find the black version elsewhere for a higher price.

2) the paradise desert island shorts:

This is one of the statement pieces from the SS18 season, in which the overall theme is "paradise." The runway piece was constructed with the same cord-and-tunnel technique as the short sleeve shirt posted above, but it was determined that the technique is not practical from a retail perspective to use for the statement pieces. Nevertheless, the fabric has a slightly stiff quality, with subtle stripes running down the garment, and upon closer inspection, almost has a seersucker like texture.

The version on Slam Jam Socialism is the cheapest I've seen it.

Older Season Runway pieces:

1) Boucle trousers from FW16:

This pair of trousers is from the FW16 season, in which Craig Green experimented heavily with processing/washing of fabrics. The cotton-silk blend of the trousers has been heavily washed and processed to create surface irregularities that make the overall piece look like moss, and texture-wise, it almost has a terry-cloth like appearance.

Suspension Point still have these in small and medium.

2) Laced trousers from SS17:

These are from the SS17 season, in which there was a heavy focus on lacing and detachment: almost all of the runway pieces from that season were held together by laces which could also then be detached, thus allowing the pieces to be either completely held together or be as detached as the wear would want. For example, see fka Twig's street style picture in the earlier post, where she chose to almost wear her entire outfit detached.

This particular piece is made from a lightweight technical cotton blend and has an elastic waist. But note that due to the eyelets running along the outside and part of the inseam, the length cannot really be altered.

Suspension Point only has the small left, but due to the elastic waist, this can likely also fit a medium.

 

[robinsongreen68]

i think this is the same basic jacket as above. i had the medium but it's on its way back. i'd advise going down a size unless you're really into the oversized look.
https://www.matchesfashion.com/prod...cdL/ATRVoE&rffrid=aff.linkshare.2523611.35725

 

[WBaker]

In AW16 Craig Green collaborated with Swedish sportswear label Bjorn Borg

I recently picked up the bomber and pants from this collection

 

[KamoteJoe]

Holiday Jacket + Uniform trousers today

 

[happyriverz]

Holiday Jacket + Uniform trousers today

Very nice -- this reminds me, I should probably create more content for this thread, but work got in the way.

 

[happyriverz]

The video for SS2019 just came out:

 

[KamoteJoe]

@happyriverz I loved reading your post about current and past Craig pieces on sale, those holiday shorts are very tempting. His approach to workwear is fresh and hopefully he will hold my interest for a long time!

 

[happyriverz]

@happyriverz I loved reading your post about current and past Craig pieces on sale, those holiday shorts are very tempting. His approach to workwear is fresh and hopefully he will hold my interest for a long time!

Thanks! I'm very impressed with the label: it's very good at appealing to the conceptual/avant-garde side of things as well as the basics/wearability side of things, all the while keeping a coherent aesthetic, a very impressive accomplishment for what is in absolute terms a very young brand.

 

[WBaker]

@happyriverz suggested I do this, and it sounded like a fun idea:

My brief introduction to Craig Green

I went into H Lorenzo in LA and tried on one of the quilted work jackets, this one in fact:

Id imagine this is Craig Green's entry point for a lot of people, and for good reason. Its boxy and by boxy I mean comfy. Everything about this jacket is comfy: low low armholes, no lining, and that cushiony quilty goodness. Im also a nerd big time for the late great Cloak, this jacket has a level of detailing thats reminiscent: Unique and sturdy snaps, small weights sewn into drawstrings, and always lots of unexpected hidden tassels.

I bought one in Black, this was my first Craig Green piece and a great way to get started. My only critique would be that the waist pockets are set so high they are difficult to use.

Second purchase was from one of Green's many collaborations, this one with swedish sportswear designer Bjorn Borg. I picked up the laser cut bomber and parachute pants below

Spoiler: Parachute Pants

These pieces both did a great job highlighting the ups and downs of Craig Green's synthetic materials. The nylon used for this collection was incredibly noisy, making the pants nearly comical to wear. The bomber is perfect as the nylon has a tissue like lightness and the laser-cut holes make it breathe wonderfully.

My two recent pickups are probably the most intricate so far, im excited to delve deeper into Craig Greens more esoteric offerings.

Paradise Desert Jacket

@KamoteJoe Sent me in the direction of a good deal! Ive tried it on in person a couple times and fallen in love, but couldn't afford the full retail. The quilting is so intricate in person. Each piece is layered in a way that gives the piece a ton of depth from the pink palm tree foreground to the black backdrop.

The fit is exactly like Craig Greens quilted work-wear jacket in my experience.

Finally I picked up a Kite Shirt thats in the mail

This feels like my most "Craig Green" piece to date, and who knows how ill feel about it. Its got ties on ties with two giant scarf like wings you can tie around the waist or leave hanging.

Im about to be vacationing overseas and ill be bringing mostly my Craig Green stuff, ill post a few pics in this thread when that time comes

 

[bry2000]

Great stuff @WBaker.

I have been searching for that holiday Paradise jacket. Any chance you came across it in size Large?

 

[keunho]

How'd you size on the quilted work jacket? @WBaker

 

[WBaker]

Im a small in most everything from CG, but Green's small fits a medium. Im enjoying wearing everything slightly oversized as intended

 

[dieworkwear]

That Paradise jacket looks so good.

Anyone have feelings on the poly vs wool versions of the quilted work jacket? I've only tried the poly, but the wool looks a bit better online.

 

[happyriverz]

The Body and the Spirit in Craig Green

Throughout the Craig Green collections, the vulnerability and protection of the human body has always been a consistent theme. From a purely materialistic perspective, his clothes have always featured various levels of un-doneness: clothes held together only by loosely tied strings, tied together with laces through eyelets whose various panels can be detached as the wearer sees fit, and sometimes, just a carpet with a hole for your head. The pervasiveness of the undone and the deconstructed creates an impression that the clothes are being disintegrated, exposing the body of the wearer as vulnerable to outside forces.

But if certain elements of the collection suggest vulnerability of the body, other elements suggest protections against such vulnerability. The intricate layering, the copious references to military uniforms and use of exaggerated padding all read to me as various ways to protect the body against exposure. Yet this element of protection is not always straightforwardly comforting in Craig Green's aesthetic universe, as he also explores the darker, more unsettling aspects of protection, such as suffocating straps, clothes that seem to be on the verge of burying its wearer with its weight and drowning them.

The duality of vulnerability and protection is similarly extended to the spirit. One of the more immediately noticeable details of almost every Craig Green collection is the seemingly endless number of strings, straps, and flags attached to the various garments (and in some instances, pieces of the garments themselves when they are detached from the connective laces) which, when seen in motion, create a trailing effect. Visually, this produces an effect of something ghostly (or at least non-corporeal) "floating" behind the wearer. Over time, this suggestion of the spirit hovering apart from the body becomes more explicit, as evidenced by the addition of fins to the various pieces (starting from the FW18 collection and getting more exaggerated in the SS19 collection), which create the effect of making an outline around the body (sometimes to literal effect, as when models worn what could be construed as body chalk outlines in the SS19 collection). And yet, the very same wooden outlines can also be construed as guardian angels, as Craig Green himself suggested, and to tie everything back to the centrality of workwear and uniform dress in his collection, aprons, nurses scrubs, and postman uniforms are printed onto various pieces to suggest that workers occupying seemingly banal blue-collar jobs are the real guardian angels of our day to day lives. And, in what is probably the most elaborate and complicated textile work to date in the Craig Green collection, even heavenly salvation is hinted.

This is all pretty weighty stuff for a very young brand, but the execution is excellent, and it shouldn't be surprising that others have discerned these themes as well, as Craig Green's pieces are currently being exhibited at the Met for its 2018 collection whose theme is the influence of Catholicism on fashion. Craig Green may not be expressly religious in its outlook, but it's evident that spirituality/materiality duality has been a conceptual well to which the brand has been drawing from.