Denzil Patrick (Q2902)
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Denzil Patrick is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Denzil Patrick |
Denzil Patrick is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
“One More Time With Feeling” was the name Daniel Gayle chose for his spring collection for Denzil Patrick. It marks the first time the 41-year-old London designer has put on a runway show in his own city, and serves as something of a homecoming.Gayle played with the uniforms of the British working class and mixed them with notions of leisure and hobbies (spy the trumpets and the bright orange swimming armbands). Construction worker donkey jackets and bus driver shirts were enlivened with jacquard prints of acanthus flowers, braided ropes that recalled aiguillettes were bound across T-shirts, and tracksuits and tailoring appeared in a summery cocktail of blush, cream, and minty blue. The clothes spoke to the pragmatism of blue-collar workers, but with a flourish of delicacy and playfulness. “The idea is that everyone recognizes the clothes, but we just start to twist them and bring them into a different kind of sensibility,” said Gayle backstage.Overall, this was collection rooted in sentimentality (helped along by a softly orchestral rendition of Pulp’s “Common People” that played over the finale), but there’s enough creative tension between Gayle and his husband James Bosley, who serves as the brand’s artistic director, that it manages to stop short of soppiness. Bosley is the hopeless romantic in the partnership, while Gayle pulls it back to earth. “I get obsessed over the sort of the costume level of detail, but Daniel [who has a background working at Jonathan Saunders, Kenzo, and Victoria Beckham] is well-trained in driving it down into a compatible and relevant product,” said Bosley.Their partnership has created a sense of Britishness that, though nostalgic, somehow feels fresh and optimistic. Ahead of the general election on July 4th, in which the Tory party is expected to be ousted after a 14 year reign of misery, there’s a feeling in the UK that things can’t possibly get any worse. It’s hard for everyone right now, and the young British fashion designer that’s thriving rather than surviving is nowhere to be found. Can we let ourselves believe that better days are on the way? Denzil Patrick makes that glimmer of hope, however tentative, seem a little more real.
7 June 2024
Ever wondered what it would be like to see a man from Edwardian England attending a London club night at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, Brixton Academy, or Camden Palace? This intriguing thought inspired Denzil Patrick designer Daniel Gayle when envisioning his fall collection. While it might sound bizarre at first, delving into the rationale behind the lineup reveals that Gayle’s creative process always serves a thoughtful purpose. “It’s about intersectionality,” he said during a preview in his Woolwich studio. “In these London nightlife spots, if you look closely at the interiors you can see ornate traces of bygone eras creeping through—that crossover was something we wanted to celebrate. Times and styles might change, but the end goal is the same: To have a good time.”The collection drew parallels between the Edwardian era and the ’90s and early 2000s through fabric choices and familiar silhouettes. Technical tops featured smocked and ruffled collars, embellished with the brand’s reflective logo for a bold sportswear effect. Jacquard jackets with matching track pants were elegantly cut in an antique floral damask print, reminiscent of theatrical interiors. Complete with detachable spats at the ankle, the pants elevated the silhouette with a nod to the early 20th century. Gayle affectionately referred to these sets as the “Edwardian tracksuit.”Continuing the language of era-transcending fashion, technical recycled satin jackets emulated the classic morning coat, complete with a discreet zip and carefully placed buttons, elegantly concealed at the front. In homage to London's iconic Pearly Kings and Queens, Gayle showcased punctiliously crafted bomber jackets, sheer tops, and straight-leg pants embellished with a medley of buttons sourced from the internet by himself and his partner, artist James Bosley. Elsewhere, cropped poplin shirts with offbeat tie details and heart-shaped cut-outs offered playful options—perfect for raving in, should one feel compelled. While Gayle was initially hesitant about hoodies—“It’s just not very us”—sleek reversible versions with midriff-exposing heart-shaped cut-outs were featured. “The heart symbolizes love, peace, and the spirit of partying,” he explained.Leaving the studio, it was hard not to think of two standout moments. One was a striking white jacket and pants ensemble, crafted from padded canvas fabric reminiscent of aged theater seats, brimming with wadding at its seams.
The other was a purple knitted jumper adorned with woven velvet ribbons, mimicking the intricate patterns of damask floral prints. Both were products of sheer brilliance.After presenting his previous collections in Paris, Gayle has decided to refocus his brand around his UK roots, hinting at a potential runway show in the near future. Despite the challenges faced by emerging designers in the wake of economic crises and the aftermath of Covid and Brexit, London feels like the ideal space for Gayle to unleash his creative prowess. Welcome home, Denzil Patrick.
8 February 2024
At Denzil Patrick, designer Daniel Gayle’s spring collection, Come Home Darling!, was a proper melange of ideas edited into a pretty tight 34-look lineup. His references run deep: Samuel Selvon’s novelThe Lonely Londoners,his own two grandfathers arriving in the Big Smoke from the Caribbean, British beach style, his youth in the ’90s, and the dovetailing of all of these influences. What resulted was something of a kaleidoscope that verged on being overwrought but ended up falling nicely into place.Shirts, tied at the waist with more shirts, symbolized packing one’s suitcase to the gills if and when permanently relocating. Layers began to emerge, such as shorts over trousers or singlets pulled down around the leg—another hint at movement, of bringing as much as one can. Gayle included a number of vests, because his “grandfathers were always cold,” having moved to London from a tropical climate. Standouts here were two color-block parkas, which dipped into the ’90s-era pool that Gayle mentioned.Even though the designer loaded up on the talking points, the many parts became unified, and the ultimate impression was one of celebration. The colors were bright, the textures were dynamic (parrot feather-esque accents on a Mac coat’s sleeves), and the vibe was optimistic. Made all the better, we should add, by the fact that all of Gayle’s textiles are responsibly developed.
23 June 2023
Daniel Gayle, the designer behind the London menswear label Denzil Patrick, is pretty nifty when it comes to naming his collections. This spring was dubbedLondon Belongs To Me, while for fall he came up with the equally evocativeAll Dressed Up and Somewhere To Go. That sense of evocation is two fold. For one, withAll Dressed Up…Gayle has tapped into the coming season’s new mood for menswear: a bit more glam, a bit more peacocking, and a whole lot more newness when it comes to tailoring. And evocative because Gayle is canny in a whole other way too. There’s a rich sense of narrative going on here, personal and reflective, emotive and joyful. And that could be exactly the right approach to be taking now as a tiny indie in a world of behemoth megabrands: To make your label meaningful, tell your own story, not anyone else’s.In Gayle’s case, that always starts with family, with all the love, connection, and complication that entails. WithAll Dressed Up… the starting point was an image of his mother taken during the very early ’80s in the multicultural south London neighborhood of Brixton. And, another earlier family snapshot from the ’40s, of his grandmother glammed up to go shopping in London’s West End, a photograph brimming with the palpable and recognizable thrill of having made the effort and turned yourself out in style in a sartorial rebuke to whatever else is going on in your life. “I’d spent so much time talking about my grandfathers, Denzil and Patrick [hence the label name],” he said, laughing, “I wanted to give a nod to the powerful women in my life.”That led him to think about the family home in Brixton; to the very fabric (literally and metaphorically) of the domestic environment—the carpets and net drapes—that have become the prints for red or silver gray plush velvet jackets and silken shirts, or lace wrap dresses which can be layered with sharp jackets and pants with a snug-fit higher waistline. The tailoring was inspired by his snappily suited young Mod uncles, while his fake furs (made from deadstock fluffy stuff) came from that image of granny.In effect, there’s a whole generational and gender interplay going on here. That’s powering a lot of fashion these days, but Gayle’s is specifically familial. You don’t need to know anything about the Gayle clan to feel the emotional resonance in these clothes, but it’s there, and it makes his work all the more compelling for it.
Make fashion, but make it feel, is the message here—like the familiar comfort of Gayle’s cozy Aran cardigans, which have been recycled from vintage ones, then re-dyed in the most gorgeous shades of scarlet and emerald. It’s creative ambition informed by emotion.Elsewhere, Gayle delved again, as he has done in the past, into his early dance training, giving a nod to the the brilliant, Puck-ish Scottish choreographer Michael Clark, who danced with Leigh Bowery and in BodyMap (the bodysuit the cult ’80s London duo designed for Clark featured cut-outs, memorably including one exposing his ass). That led Gayle to explore how fit and freedom of movement can work together—that very au courant wider, sloping shoulder, or the narrow, warm-up pant leg, or the deep curving armholes on a pale mauve duchesse satin tee that’s been spangled with jewels. That’s not the only decorative flourish. Equally personal, Gayle’s partner, the artist James Bosley, sketched a sassy character called Lydia, all Jessica Rabbit curves and Riot Grrrl attitude, who appears on the likes of a sweater with an exposed back. So, yes, all dressed up, to be sure, and with enough thought and imagination to suggest these clothes are definitely going somewhere.
30 January 2023
The British designer Daniel Gayle’s family has been a profound influence on his label Denzil Patrick since he launched it in 2020. Gayle has used his brand to pay loving homage to his Irish and Jamaican heritage; Denzil and Patrick are the first names of his paternal and maternal grandfathers respectively. Yet for his spring 2023 collection (his third, or his fifth, if you include a couple of capsules) he looked to the more immediate past—his own, growing up in ’90s London.The 39-year-old Gayle has taken on what many of us would be positively unnerved by: going back to being 16 years old. (I know that I, for one, broke out in a sweat as I typed that.) In particular, he’s returned to the summer he was that age, a time when everything changed for him: He left school, came out, and discovered how clothes can reflect who you are and who you want to be in ways unimaginable before, like suddenly flexing a previously unused muscle and then wondering how you ever lived without it. “It felt like anything was possible,” he says of that time, “and it only lasted that summer, that feeling.” In light of this, he called the collectionLondon Belongs To Me; the idea that the city—and life—is yours for the taking and the making.This is a highly personal collection, full of subjective experience along with excellent and imaginative clothes. The last moments of his school life are recalled in the use of uniform tropes. Blazers, embroidered on the back with a blown-up version of a school badge, or printed on the front with the kind of number you’d wear on a cross-country run. Sports kits worn with jackets and school ties, just as Gayle and his teenage cohorts used to do, or tracksuits tailored with a stronger, more definitive line, and all mixed with Gola sneakers—starting from the feet up, the eternal solution to personalizing one’s school uniform. (Incidentally, much of the research for all this came from snaps taken by the designer on disposable cameras, that pre-smartphone way of recording your life and experiences.)There are also particularly good brightly colored anoraks, with zippers running down the sleeves, designed to be transformed at their wearer’s whims, the result of a cannily observed memory of how one of his classmates used to unselfconsciously and instinctively knot and fold his coat around him. (That didn’t just happen at Gayle’s school; at mine someone wore his nylon parka hanging off his shoulders as if it was Balenciaga haute couture.
That someone wasn’t me, by the way.)
14 July 2022