STUDIO PIN UPS - Nick Wakeman’s Summer

1. This is Nadine Gordimer who is a Nobel Prize winner of literature. She happens to also look amazing in a Harrington jacket. Hasn’t she got an amazingly kind face? I love how she brings masculine touches to her wardrobe in really pleasing ways. This outfit is very my thing with a darkest navy shirt, a bit of denim, a relaxed white Harrington and always an earring. She’s styled this in quite a feminine way. I like the shirt and belt combination too. Basically, an ideal travel look and all round solid approach to spring into summer. 

2. When I’m looking for imagery, I’m looking at the clothes and the people. This image of Isabella Rossellini, who looks particularly in love with Martin Scorsese, who’s the man behind that mask, is just nuts. Whoever got this photo together needs a medal. That mask could be rubber or could be metal, who knows? I also love that he hasn’t done his tie up properly and that he’s in a brown suit with that mask! I like her random jewellery. We have an open gauzy vest for women in a couple of colours for summer, the Cilla, and this was one of the references for that. This picture also just evokes that idea of being away somewhere amazing, doesn’t it? 

3. For SS25, I was thinking a lot about white coats. Without it being ‘the doctor will see you now.’ I’ve always got lots of images of white coats and jackets in the mix but they are really hard to do. Of course, I love the white coat because it’s quite uniform and purposeful, a bit like the green grocer’s coat. I love dentists’ scrubs. Our white Nevis coat is in a Japanese noisy crunchy cotton. Helmut Lang is appealing, I think, because he was just into very archetypal garments and then quite mad fabrics. He was the casual minimalist to Calvin’s [Klein] smart minimalist. This Helmut look is very pristine, and actually, if she had a stethoscope around her neck
we wouldn’t be surprised, would we? [laughs]

4. We looked at Ralph Fiennes and Tilda Swinton in ‘A Bigger Splash’ for the SS25 collection. I think they just dressed Ralph in clothes they found on the island while Tilda was in Raf Simons’ Dior! It’s funny that in a way, these clothes on Tilda slightly jar with her character being a rock star, while Ralph is just living his character Harry’s wardrobe so completely. When I go to Greece, I like to see those shops that have old clothes in the window from 1982 that are all a bit faded. I like that you might buy a pair of weird holiday trousers or a random pair of sandals. That’s part of a holiday to me. Oh and yes, Ralph wears a lot of really good shorts in the film too. Our Elio shorts with their gathered waist are quite that mood I think. 

5. Harringtons and shorts are such a key look for us this summer. I love outerwear and bomber jackets with shorts, as a young Steven Spielberg, also in some Jaws merch, is sporting wonderfully here. I also like knits and shorts. Basically, that idea that not everything is out. I watched Jaws one, two and three recently while I was in Japan, and I love Chief Brody [main character in Jaws]. He has great shorts. 

6. One thing I really enjoy doing when we’re working on summer collections is obsessing about colour palettes. I love that feeling and mood of sun-bleached fabrics that have a certain easy softness. And of course, you’re frankly nobody without a holiday jean! 

7. In my head this is Miuccia [Prada] in a car park wearing a holiday t-shirt. I mean this is obviously not her, but there’s something about the hair, the skirt, the way she’s carrying that bag. It’s all excellent. And again, as a mood this just reeks of island hopping and long lunches at restaurants by the water. Plus, that t-shirt is another one of those
off things you always end up buying on holiday that brings a lot of joy. 

8. My Uncle Rick was major. He lived in Hong Kong and set up Marks & Spencer’s there. He was always very David Niven meets Alan Wicker. He was a big influence on me. He would come over from Hong Kong and bring me shirts and dungarees and I loved them. He would also bring over buttons - he was my mum’s brother and she would ask him to, as me and Mum would always make my clothes. He looks particularly great here. I really remember him wearing this great navy jersey shirt with brown slacks, which was just such a lovely combination. The other man in the photo has some very good shorts on too. 

9. This was a reference we looked at for our indigo slub cotton which we have used for various pieces in both menswear and womenswear. There is something great about the amount of buttons open on that shirt and the whole stance is very sun-kissed. 

10. I love Tilda in this shirt dress, which is a great archetypal piece that draws together masculine and feminine codes in a very Studio Nicholson way. It just speaks of a kind of utter effortlessness, which is ultimately the real core of summer dressing. You just want dresses you throw on. They can be thoughtfully designed but they also just need to make you feel at ease.