Ben Sherman's New Youth Movement

Politically-minded menswear designer Matthew Miller explains his inspiration behind the Ben Sherman capsule collection, consisting of shirts, T-shirts and a jacket...

“I began by looking at some of the most important and iconic youth movements over the past few decades and the photographers who managed to capture these subcultures as they happened. From Gavin Watson’s amazing images from the late-Eighties and early-Nineties illegal warehouse raves and acid house parties, Michael Lavine’s documentation of grunge and Paul Graham’s haunting images of the brutal beauty of Eighties council estates.

“I noticed, while researching these youth movements, that nearly all of them were vilified in the press. This collection is about today’s youth and how the press call them a 'disaffected and lost generation'. I have subsequently turned this demonetisation back round on itself and made it into a uniform for the youth of today, reclaiming the tag ‘The Disaffected Generation’ – in turn creating a movement for those that feel adrift from the status quo. It’s a new youth movement.”

Priced from £80, the collection is available nationwide from April 21 in Ben Sherman stores and online

T-shirt with graduated check print at hem £80 and shirt with the same detail £175 both by MATTHEW MILLER X BEN SHERMAN, bensherman.com; white high-top ‘Blazers’ £105 by APC NIKE, apc.fr