‘Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed’ Antoine Lavoisier, French chemist

Since launching their eponymous label in 2017, Anglo-Franco design duo Imogen Wright and Vincent Le Chapelain have created trend-subverting wardrobe classics, designed according to a slow fashion mindset. For S/S 2021, the label has strengthened its commitment to an environmentally and socially conscious design approach, encouraged by Wright and Le Chapelain’s relocation in March 2020, from fast-paced North London to Wright’s remote family home, located in a hamlet in South Devon.

Wright le Chapelain designed their spring summer 2021 collection from a detached barn made from stones, surrounded by chicken coops, vegetable patches, and wildflowers. When away from this makeshift studio, they reconnected with the natural world. A reflection of the label’s rural relocation, the collection is inspired by the local high street of Totnes, and the material landscape of its charity shops, which has rails hanging with discarded short sleeve checked walking shirts, jersey polo shirts, and stonewashed denim.

The S/S 2021 collection has been created entirely from upcycled clothes, sourced locally, or through donations from London-based homelessness charity Crisis. Reduced in size, it encourages considered investment and the rejection of excess. Garments have been meticulously unpicked and reworked into organically toned sleeveless shirts and jackets, paper-bag waist trousers, vests with twisted straps, and oversized blazers. Shirts and sweaters have been pieced together to form deconstructed handkerchief skirts which tie around the waist and denim has been spliced into loose jeans with undulating seams. In a nod to Nineties minimalism, check fabrics have been transformed into spaghetti strap tops and bandeau dresses. Each piece was made by Wright Le Chapelain’s London-based seamstress, who received patterns and fabrics by post from Devon.