Workwear: Fantastic animator Jack Cunningham on his wardrobe

London Fashion Week is officially over, and we have now come to the end of our Workwear feature. We thought we’d round the series off with Jack Cunningham, a London animator who works at Nexus Productions. We chose to finish with Jack because he represents an enormous chunk of mid-twenties creatives in London – he’s just a nice chap who wants to not look like a scumbag and be able to get his hands on good quality clothes. Below Jack tells us how to get away with buying expensive things for cheap, and chats about how shit men’s high street fashion used to be compared to nowadays. Once you’ve read this, check out how good he is at animating things.

So, what are you wearing today? Tell me about your shoes

Well, these are 1970s Converse. I’ve always liked Converse because they’re nice and simple, but there’s just something about these 1970s ones which make them really rigid and great. I bought them like two weeks ago and I’ve worn them every day since, trying to fuck them up a bit so they’re not as clean.

What about your socks – those are nice grey ribbed ones.

I go to Uniqlo for my socks. I bought some Norse Project ones and they were like 15 quid and I ended up just feeling a bit guilty.

Do you wear the same clothes at work as you do on the weekend?

I think we’re lucky in commercial, arty jobs that we can kind of get away with wearing the same thing. I don’t really have a line between what I wear for work and in my down time.

Tell me about your jacket

It’s not very warm, it’s more of a spring jacket, as I’m just waiting for spring. It’s from Margaret Howell. I went to the Margaret Howell shop and it was £270, then I came back and I was like, “Oh God. That’s too much. Especially for a thin jacket..” You wanna spend that much money on a coat that’s gonna keep you warm, right? And then I went to Oi Polloi, because I pretty much buy all my clothes from there, it’s a shop up in Manchester. They always select really nice stuff, and I saw it was on sale there for £180. In the corner of the label it said “Cheapskate deal: 20%” and so it ended up being like £150!

Wow! What’s the most you would spend on a great jacket?

Mmm. Yeah, my girlfriend is from Montreal and I’ve never experienced cold like that before, so before I went I spent £500 on a down, Norse Projects coat. I figure in cold environments that’s when clothes are most expensive because they’re keeping you alive.

How many clothes do you buy online?

I actually buy most of my clothes online. Oi Polloi mainly, and sometimes Pegg’s & Son. They all do a similar thing, all these shops that have popped up for guys. There never used to be any “guy” fashion – I used to find it so hard, and I kind of hated how much I’d have to spend in order to not wear stuff from Topman and see everyone else wearing the same thing. I like my clothes to be a tiny bit different and I kind of feel like for a while you had to spend a lot, but recently it’s got a lot more competitive with men’s clothing.

Yeah I remember thinking once when I was on a high street, “where do boys get their clothes?” Because it was just all women’s clothes shops.

Yeah! I was so jealous of girls, because you’d go in, there’d be millions of different variations of things and then I’d go upstairs in Topman and there was like, a T-shirt with an ice cream on it. Or “69” – I hate any shirt that says “69” on it.

Do you have a favourite brand, anyone you feel who are doing it just right?

Yeah Margaret Howell is wicked. It’s super expensive and I only own two things from there, both of which I got in the sale.
I like that it’s unisex, it’s so simple as well. It’s just good. Expensive, but good.

It’s the kind of thing you don’t throw away

One of the first big jobs I did I got paid £1000 and I didn’t really understand tax, and I was like “Cool! I’ve got a grand! I can buy that £400 bag I want from Japan!” And so I went online and bought it, £400! It’s Porter, Japan. I’ve had it for five years and I use it every day, so it’s paid for itself. I like the mentality of buying a few things now and again as opposed to just walking into Uniqlo again and again. Even though I do get a lot of stuff from there too.

Do you ever buy second hand clothes?

When I was at uni I was fully charity shop, and I still like them. You go into a charity shop and occasionally I see something great and it’s like £20, and maybe it’s even something that a lot of more expensive shops base their clothes on but charge £400. Personally I find it really hard – I don’t have much of an attention span so going through rails in Beyond Retro doesn’t appeal anymore.

Workwear

In time for London Fashion Week kicking off on the 20 February, we have spent time travelling around London visiting artists and designers who may or may not be too busy to bother with following fashion, to find out what creative people really wear, and why. From dusty boiler suits and pyjamas, to homemade T-shirts and one-of-a-kind jewellery, the stories behind these creatives’ clothes are far more interesting than they are de rigeur. All photographs were taken by the wonderful Nina Manandhar who created the book What We Wore. Enjoy!