Charles Jeffrey Loverboy

In Disney’s Fantasia (1940), a sorcerer’s apprentice played by Mickey Mouse, attempts to cast some of his master’s spells, only to quickly lose control of them. Magic, apparently, is difficult to manipulate. Which might be why we don’t see it often in fashion. But it can be enchanting to experience the ways in which designers reimagine a material’s purpose. Working with everything from safety pins and construction paper to prosthetics, wax, baby oil and slime, Charles Jeffrey Loverboy is presented in a whirl of haunted primary hues—blood red, noxious saffron, telekinetic blue. A crushed plastic water bottle as a shoe’s sole, a discarded garment bag as tulle. Near the end of summer, club-kid-cum-fashion-visionary Charles Jeffrey travelled to the SSENSE HQ in Montreal, where he collaborated with in-house talent to cast and co-style these images. Fantasia meets Leigh Bowery meets Raggedy Anne, Charles Jeffrey Loverboy is seamlessly uninhibited.