CHARLES JEFFREY LOVERBOY FALL/WINTER 2024

Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY AW24 is an ode to Moshkirk. To Scotland. To the rebellious spirits of a revived subculture that lives on strong to this day. It also speaks to the magical, the fables and stories, the absurd, and delivers this in a way that celebrates Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY in all its playful glory.

“Something strange was happening. Clothes were moving, wriggling, and even making sounds, some even started to grow eyes, arms, and legs. Bags grew tongues, boots grew legs, hats even grew ears. All the clothes started developing these labels that read ‘Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY’, with this wee monster underneath.”

These words, scrawled on scraps of paper, landed at Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY HQ as we were designing our Autumn/Winter 2024 collection. Signed Magnus McPewitt – no, we’ve never heard of him either – this 18 year old from the lost Scottish village of Moshkirk informed the LOVERBOY team of his predicament.

The tale goes a little bit like this. In 1979, a meteor flew over the village and cast a flash of light bright enough, and powerful enough, to cut Moshkirkians out of society. Without contact to the rest of the world, let alone Glasgow, the villagers pioneered fashions of ’79. Think punk, dancehall, disco, new wave, no wave, post punk. “It was all the rage.” said McPewitt. Teenagers and grannies alike embraced the culture of this bygone era, to the point of limbo. Pulling and tugging between then and now, the Moshkirkians’ admiration of 1979 became a way of life, for good and for bad.

1979 saw Margaret Thatcher lead The Conservative Party into power, and the newly appointed Prime Minister unleashed her infamous Thatcherisms amongst the people. Northern towns and villages were most hit by the Iron Lady, wiping away their industrial roots year after year.

It seems, then, that there’s more to Moshkirk being stuck in a bygone period. Perhaps it chose the right era to stay in, as while it was wiped from existence, its existence wasn’t wiped from its inhabitants. And in a way that has halted Moshkirk from developing with the future, it might have been all for a good reason, as it recovered from the Winter of Discontent with the rest of the United Kingdom, and now reflects on the more joyous elements of the late 70s instead.

It’s now 2024, and it’s got us at LOVERBOY thinking. Austerity, pain, an economic crisis, mass unemployment and ail-time-high inflation, it all sounds too familiar. But through trauma comes creativity: when we experience the worst, can the weird, wonderful, hedonistic, and silly come to fruition in order to say something bigger?