Charlie Casely-Hayford is an acclaimed menswear designer from London. He founded the international menswear brand Casely-Hayford at the age of 22 with his father, the pioneering late British fashion designer Joe Casely-Hayford OBE. Steeped in the traditions of English sartorialism and British anarchy, Charlie’s designs have been worn by everyone from David Beckham to Drake to Jessie Buckley. We paid him a visit to pose a few questions…
Quote to live by
My old man always very much believed that you get what you put in. I try and stick to that as best I can.
Book that shaped you
In Praise of Shadows by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki, it’s more essay than book and can be read sat by the pool in a day. It’s defined by Japanese aesthetics, cultural differences in the perception of everyday objects, the spaces we occupy and how we interact with them. I’d go so far as to say it outlines a lifestyle I’m very keen to subscribe to.
Favourite museum/gallery
The Chichu Art Museum in Naoshima, Japan is like nothing I’ve experienced. The architecture of the museum is conversational. Tadao Ando, the architect, guides the way you view and experience the artworks and encourages a personal engagement that is often lacking in more traditional museums. He uses daylight to transform your journey through his minimalist space. The artworks inform the space and vice versa.
Favourite artist
Anselm Kiefer is my guy.
Favourite bar
Outside on the balcony of the bar at Le Sirenuese in Positano in the summer. There are worse ways to spend your evening.
Most memorable meal
Grillied seafood over hot coals at the Marisqueira Fialho Restaurant on the harbour waterfront in Fuseta in Portugal. with a side of very salty chips. Super simple, but incredibly fresh and a great atmosphere. No frills at all about this place, but that’s what I love. I head there every year with my wife’s family.
Favourite cocktail
Old fashioned is my drink and always worth the hangover. The hangovers sadly seem to become longer with each year that passes.
Interiors you envy
The Blue Mosque in Istanbul makes me feel wonderfully insignificant in its scale and beauty.
Homewares you hunt while travelling
We’re always on the hunt for ceramics, we seemed to strike gold in Kyoto and Kanazawa in Japan after a few tip offs from a friend.
Design decade you feel at home in
The 1950s are my go-to decade and currently influencing my style too (undoubtedly heavily influenced by my wife).
How do you unwind
Chess and cooking. I can’t say that I’m a great player nor the best cook, but weirdly those are the two things that seem to automatically make me unwind.
Go-to spa treatment
I don’t even know what went down, but I was a new man after the spa treatment with my wife at Monastero Santa Rosa in the Amalfi coast. It was a whole other level of tranquillity that decompressed me in record time. Normally it takes me two to three days to switch off from work and focus on the task in hand of trying to unwind. An hour at this place and I was good to go.
Most regrettable holiday purchase
I saw a nine-year-old kid at a seaside restaurant in Puglia with his parents eating what looked like a delicious seafood pasta. When it came to my order, I pointed at the boy and said ‘I’ll have what he’s having’. When the bill came, it transpired he was eating a €150 bowl of pasta. I won’t be making that mistake again.
Your must-pack outfit
A pair of wide-leg linen-mix trousers and a long-sleeved relaxed-fit revere collar shirt.
Best place you’ve ever swum
On the coast of Churchaven in West Coast National Park in South Africa at a friend’s house in complete isolation. Definitely one of my most memorable moments. I think that kind of tranquillity is when I’m at my happiest.
It’s not a holiday without…
A relaxed shower around 6pm and change of outfit just before heading out for dinner in the evening. Such a small detail but then I guess it’s the little things.
Charlie was photographed at the Casely-Hayford atelier on London’s Chiltern Street by Louis AW Sheridan.