Fred Perry x Art Comes First

Our favourite UK heritage brand knows exactly how fascination around fashion is created and what social significance it can have. From a deep affinity with subcultures, youth movements and the music scene, Fred Perry has been emphasizing the importance and value of the interweaving of art, culture and fashion for many years now, especially via the »Subculture« platform. Up-and-coming and iconic artists of the past, present and future are celebrated while taking a deeper look beyond the mainstream at what moves and fascinates the Fred Perry community worldwide.

The creative duo ART COMES FIRST has been a regular partner of the laurel wreath adorned brand for many seasons. We have always been big fans of this combination and have already had the pleasure to feature several joint collections in our shop. Last year we got the opportunity to ask Sam Lambert and Shaka Maidoh, creators and masterminds behind ACF, about the essence of their collective, their sources of inspiration and their creative process. You can read the interview here.

Inspired by Dave Hendley

This season ACF dedicates its collaboration with Fred Perry to photographer and longtime Trojan Records A&R Dave Hendley, who captured the Rude Boy Culture in Jamaica and the UK during the late seventies like no other and whose powerful portraits still preserve the spirit and style of this influential subculture until today. Hendley has photographed music legends such as Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs, Marcia Griffiths and Lee Scratch Perry, among others, and has contributed to bringing this culture and its impact to Europe, both through his photography and through his work at Trojan Records.

As a tribute to Dave Hendley, who died in 2016, ACF have created a collection that tells the story of his iconic images and is strongly inspired by the Rudeboys’ style: »Many of the Fred Perry archive pieces didn’t feel like clothing to us, they felt more like characters from Mr Hendley’s pictures, and that inspired us for days. We’re very proud just to be able to continue telling that same story you see documented in those pictures through clothing. Rudeboy culture is being reinterpreted today by many young artists, it’s all thanks to the brands, music and art of what people did back then, still resonating with all of us today. Once rudeboy you will always be rudeboy.« – Sam Lambert & Shaka Maidoh (Art Comes First)