“I like clothing not fashion,” says Nick Wakeman, founder and creative director of Studio Nicholson which launched in 2010. Wakeman has ploughed her 20+ years of fashion design industry experience into building a no-nonsense clothing brand that revolves around a fabric-first approach. “The idea for Studio Nicholson lies in making every day and commonplace garments exceptionally beautiful and flawlessly modern,” she says. “I am infatuated with the idea of the ordinary in place of any kind of fantasy.”

Wakeman’s obsession with perfecting the classics, reinvigorating them, reimagining their details and modernising them has been central to building up a robust and gutsy wardrobe. “I like purposeful,” says Wakeman. “I never want fuss,” she smiles. The first collection was influenced by her own wardrobe of shirts, jeans and men’s tailored jackets. The menswear proposition launched in 2017, and a debut range of luxury handbags in 2024.

Alongside her form-follows-fabric philosophy, Wakeman also puts her garments through a rigorous design process which regularly involves 4-5 fitting sessions to perfect cut and shape before they become part of the collection. Building slowly, season on season, has led to a set of now strong and recognisable design codes, from striking voluminous silhouettes, clean and boxy denim, and sculptural or architectural outerwear. “I would imagine that in 200 years if we’re on the moon, we’ll still be wearing a trench coat and a pair of jeans,” Wakeman says. “I’d like to think so.”

Japan and architecture are two of Wakeman’s greatest loves and perennial reference points, a passion that met in one with the Japanese architect Tadao Ando, whose use of light and raw concrete blocks inspired the brand’s Tokyo store. “I think about clothing in quite an architectural way,” explains Wakeman, underlining her passion for experimenting with where the line or angle of a garment might ultimately fall during the design process, and how that will then change the entire look or feel of a piece of clothing. “Buildings are a bit like clothing, they look different from different angles, and are also there to protect you,” she says. Her interest in materials, such as stone, marble, chalk and concrete, coupled with her love of textures, hard, soft, shiny and rubbery, always infuse her design practise.

Silhouettes are purposefully playful, with the volume dialled up to a notch that guarantees maximum comfort whilst retaining the perfect, deliberately awkward proportions. Stripped back, luxurious and casual, the modular wardrobe celebrates clever layering and polished, practical simplicity.