Behind the Lens: Shooting AW26 in Margate

We shoot in Margate because it never tries to be anything other than itself. The light off the Channel in autumn has a particular quality — flat, cold, slightly silver — that makes neutral fabrics look the way they should look: like fabric, not like an Instagram filter.

We don't do studios. We don't do stylists in helicopters. We rent a small terrace overlooking the harbour, we bring two photographers, three models — friends, mostly — and we shoot for as long as the light holds.

Day one.

The Overshirt and The Trouser, on a fishmonger's wall outside Old Town. The wind picked up around eleven, which was a problem for the wool overshirt (it kept blowing open) and a gift for the cotton tee underneath (it caught the light beautifully).

We learned that day that a really good overshirt photographs best when it's doing something — getting blown, being adjusted, falling open over a tee. The flat-lay catalogue shot has its place. It's just not this place.

Day two.

The Crew Sweat and the Long Sleeve, on the chalk cliffs at Botany Bay. The tide was low. Our model had a coffee in one hand and was complaining about the wind in the other.

The shot we used was an accidental one — she'd turned to laugh at something and the photographer just kept shooting. There's a school of thought that says fashion photography should be composed, considered, art-directed within an inch of its life. We tend to disagree. The best photographs of clothes are the ones where the person wearing them looks like they actually live in them.

The best photographs of clothes are the ones where the person wearing them looks like they actually live in them.

Day three.

The Heavyweight Tee and The Tank, indoors — finally — at a small café on Northdown Road. We had a coffee, we had a flat white, we had a discussion about whether the radiator was loud enough to interfere with the shutter. (It wasn't.)

The look we ended up using is on our homepage now. Bone-coloured tee, navy trousers, hands in pockets, late afternoon light through a Victorian window. Took about three minutes to shoot. We'd been chasing it for three days.

Why Margate.

Because it's not Notting Hill. Because the light is honest. Because a town that's been a holiday destination for two hundred years still has the chalk and the wind and the cold sea, and those things look like our clothes are supposed to feel.

We'll be back in March, for the SS27 shoot. Different light, same town.