Camo Collab

Camouflage, but not for hiding. Conspicuously covert, if you like...

We made our first camouflage suit in 1996 for a gentleman who loved going to the opera but hated wearing suits… He wanted to make a point and thought that Richard James would understand best how to do it.

The suit was made from original Woodland colourway British military-issue Disruptive Pattern Material that we found in a surplus store in Soho. Thankfully, it was all-cotton and a decent weight – the later, lighter nylon-blends don’t drape half as well.

It was a first (we certainly hadn't seen a camo suit before) and it was noticed. We were soon asked to make the same for Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman for the cover of the February 1998 issue of George magazine (pictured, above) and Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox for the Eurythmics world tour of 1999. So camouflage quickly became something of a Richard James signature, influencing seasonal images (AW12, pictured, below) and collections (the WWI razzle dazzle-influenced AW17 Camofleur, pictured, bottom) and featuring on many pieces, from silk evening jackets to ties and pocket squares.

Fast forward to 2023 and the suit was noticed again, this time by designer Luke Derrick (who we sponsored a few years ago when he was a student at Central Saint Martins) when he was looking through our archive with the idea of producing his first-ever print design for a mooted collaboration with us. The other thing that really caught his eye was an image of the Chapman brothers covering each other in white paint while wearing Richard James suits for Esquire magazine in 2004 (below).

So, back in his east London studio, camo and splattered suits in mind, Derrick took a paintbrush and proceeded to paint a single, very small white stroke, which he then scanned and magnified 150 times to create an abstract camouflage. Blown up to such a scale and applied to a fine black silk twill, the paint flecks became graphic shards, fracturing silhouettes while immediately evoking the painterly and the militaristic.

And then, back on Savile Row, our Design & Brand Director Toby Lamb worked with Luke to translate the print into the new, in-store-and-online-now DERRICK × Richard James collection of event/evening wear: a deconstructed double-breasted suit with twin-pleat trousers, a shirt, a tie, a buttonable scarf, a cap, a pocket square and a card holder.

As Toby puts it: “Luke reimagined our camouflage heritage in a single, striking monochromatic brushstroke and we shaped it with Savile Row craftsmanship. The DERRICK + Richard James collection is a great new chapter in our camo story.”