Denzil Patrick officially launched its first take on womenswear this season, though sisters, mothers, and female friends have long worn the designs of creative director Daniel Gayle and artistic director James Bosley.
“We’ve really taken it back to our very first season, when we were making clothes for people that Daniel knew,” said Bosley. This was the brand’s 10th collection, and they were feeling particularly introspective. “Across the collections, we’ve built a story of British uniforms, clubs, scenes, and tribes, and now, we’re breaking down how people remix them and make their own style codes.” That’s articulated in the duo’s keenly researched storytelling, with a ragtag cast of characters as reference. Where fall 2025 was a brigade of speedway racers and medieval knights, this season was about the Teddy Girls, scrappy South London musicians of the ’80s, grandmas made up as ’40s movie stars, Cockney boxers, and the button-festooned Pearly Kings.
Touchpoints of these cultures and the brand’s South London heritage were reimagined for real and riotous lives: raw hemlines and sporty, breathable cottons, the front plackets of silken shirts sitting in a permanent rumpled state, a chaotic energy made architectural. Bosley, who also works with Dior Men, was delighted to introduce more detailed prints. Tailored evening jackets printed with old London postcard scenes, spangled with silver threads to look like shimmering Polaroids, were paired with black lace-up boxer boots. Sheer and sensual chartreuse polo tops—part of the brand’s “commercially successful” suite of “x-ray” knits, carried over from last summer’s collection—were toughened up with black bras and bloomers, and a sweet purple gingham bralette was paired with flowing suit trousers featuring a boxer short waistband.
The collection also featured a new section of hand-painted and sprayed jersey tops, something they previously steered clear of for fear that the pieces would subsume the brand’s tailoring message. A button-adorned dinner jacket, with Mother of Pearls creating undulating patterns, was crafted using a legion of Etsy and eBay suppliers—it seems likely to be a hit with their celebrity followers.
Making clothes that speak to the Denzil Patrick woman has been both a liberation and a challenge. “I’ve worked with different designers who have their own approaches to who their woman is—someone with a sense of power, or as these otherworldly beings…but I just kept thinking about my mum, sisters, and cousins…or an incredible woman I used to see in a dodgy bar in Beckenham. How do I make them feel and look good?” said Gayle.
