Vancouver-based fashion retailer Oak + Fort has always had a men’s collection, but it was small – a single rack in each store – until Matthew Burwell joined as menswear designer in 2015. This season, the minimalist label upped its creative game even further with the appointment of former Commodified blogger/editor/strategist Craig David Long as Men’s Cultural Developer. His role, which concluded this month, was to develop the brand’s photographic and video aesthetic for everything from editorial campaigns to Instagram (@oakandfortman). In addition to working closely with Burwell to identify trends, Long produced events, the first of which took place in mid-March to launch the Spring/Summer 2017 menswear collection.
Long’s first task at the company was to produce the campaign photography and a video, titled Let Me Introduce Myself, for the Spring/Summer collection. “Video is such a captivating medium, and it’s great for fashion, because it shows how the garments fit and flow,” he says. The video was shot in Vancouver by local cinematographer Briggs Ogloff. “We went for an industrial aesthetic – bridges and chain-link fences – to highlight the streetwear nature of the collection and the interaction between high and low culture.”
Burwell expands on this. “Oak + Fort takes streetwear, which can be very done-up, and strips it down to make it wearable for someone not into street culture,” he says. “On the flipside, minimalism can be unapproachable, but adding streetwear elements makes it more casual.”
Long took this as the jumping-off point for styling the campaign. “We wanted to contextualise the clothes, educating men about how things can be worn in daily life to demonstrate that these pieces aren’t just for fashion week.”
It’s been a different experience for Burwell to see his clothes through someone else’s eyes. “I like making clothes, not styling them, so it’s amazing to see what Craig has done, and I trust him to do a good job.”
Burwell is currently focused on the Spring 2018 collection, while, in the long term, Long says there is a goal to have standalone menswear stores. Although, as Burwell points out, “Many pieces in the menswear and womenswear collections are unisex, so there’s a certain fluidity there, too. People should experiment and try what they like.”
This story has been updated since it was originally published.
