RETURN TO SLYGO: Nicholas Daley

18 May-4 Jul 2021

Overview

NOW Gallery is thrilled to welcome one of the UK’s most pioneering young fashion designers, Nicholas Daley, as its 2020 Fashion Commission. The fully immersive exhibition, RETURN TO SLYGO will celebrate the coming together of Nicholas’s multicultural Jamaican-Scottish roots with his passion for music in a multi-sensory installation. A marriage of Nicholas’s three core values of community, culture and craftsmanship, the exhibition comes at a fitting moment of national healing and togetherness. RETURN TO SLYGO will see the gallery transformed into a welcoming space for the local community and visitors alike to come, slow down and dwell. A nod towards his fine tailoring reputation and attention to beautiful woven fabrics, Nicholas’ vision will see the gallery floor covered in bespoke woven carpets that invite the visitor to enter the space, sit down and take in the surroundings at their own speed. Bringing together his rich and diverse references and inspiration for his menswear designs, the backdrop of the exhibition will showcase a moodboard of different cultures allowing visitors to immerse themselves into his world where key archive imagery, family photos and iconic reggae club t-shirts will be on display. A series of ‘illustrative vinyls’ will cover the windows creating an inhabited and fun front to the exhibition. Designed in collaboration with illustrator Gaurab Thalki, Nicholas’s message will stand proud on banners in his signature Nicholas Daly fabric hung from the 7 metre gallery ceiling. These banners highlight that the exhibition is a place for all to come and unite in a safe space beyond lockdown. Offering an insight into Nicholas’s fierce sense of family and how his upbringing has had a powerful influence on his approach to fashion will be a key theme of the experience, with his family honoured throughout. Two films offer a vison of his parents in relation to his practice and how they influence him.