Friday’s Fashion Flair runway ended with a bang following the dark yet eye-catching six-minute show by Filipino/Welsh designer Jean Louie Castillo. The show featured an undeniable edge and sense of despair reminiscent of a cemetery and protruding broken bones. The aura and somberness of death are ever omnipresent. In many ways, JLC exemplifies the goth revival that Titans Rick Owens and Simone Rocha commenced in 2024. His unique style surpasses them as a breath of fresh air to those looking for dark aesthetics fashion. Following this newest collection, Jean sat down for an interview, breaking it down.
Fresh off the runway, how’s it going?
I’ve got some plans. I can’t really say anything yet, but I’m just gonna keep doing me. I’m gonna keep sewing. Hopefully, I’ll have my own solo show in September or next year, I’m not really sure, but yeah, I’ve got, um, I’m just gonna keep continuing sewing and exploring new themes and staying in my realm, in my bubble, yeah, yeah.
What inspired this AW25 collection?
My recent heartbreak actually inspired this collection. I was in a relationship for four years, four or five years, and yeah, I spent a lot of the grieving process in the cemetery. I went to Paris’ Pere Lachaise and Monmarte. But I also live in Highgate, so I stayed there a lot. I visited Highgate Cemetery every, pretty much every week, and that’s where I mourned the whole relationship. Because it does feel like a death in many ways, that I’m losing someone that you love, you thought you were going to grow old with. It feels like a part of you is gone. It’s just like this. So it’s basically that. I was exploring; I was facing the pain because you can’t really escape it. So, what better place to do that than a cemetery?
We all deal with grief in our ways...
No, for me as a goth, the cemetery, it is for me. I always hung out in cemeteries anyway, regardless of whether I was grieving or not. Um, I love the atmosphere of a graveyard, and like the romance of, I don’t know how it, I don’t know how, but the cemetery, there’s, there’s a romance the cemetery, because there’s a lingering feeling of, there’s a beauty. There’s a beauty to it. It also reminds me of the transience of life. So, you know, you’re surrounded by so much death, and you’re reminded that this is, one day, this is going to be where we’re all going to be; there’s no escaping death. It made me ponder a lot, and I was thinking about the statues. I was looking at the statues while I was crying, and I just loved all the greys and the cement, and there’s gothic brutalism, you know, in the Highgate Cemetery.
You already got to my next question… What specifically was catching your eye there?
The statues were a hit for me; they were the ivy, the overgrown vines, the thorns, the silence, and just the nature of it all, and everything was so imperfect yet so perfect. There’s a word called “ruinen Sehnsucht” in German, and it means something along the lines of belonging to the ruins. And I think that’s a massive element in goth, in Gothic, not goth. Big difference. Big difference. Yeah, there’s a beautiful thing that we love about the ruins. I think it stems from, you know, Dracula’s castle and Whitby and how everything is ruined, but it’s so beautiful. I’m not the only person longing for these ruins; I also have a love and attraction to these ruins and rubbles. There’s something about the transience of time and the destruction over time; everything is so temporary.
That is true; everything is temporary. Speaking of temporary, how does this runway differ from your past works and other runways you’ve done?
This is the biggest platform I’ve ever showcased on. This is through Flair Fashion. Thank you, Mouhannad and Linxi. You guys are amazing. And thank you for taking the chance on me. This is the biggest show I’ve ever done so far, and it’s different in terms of it’s more. There’s more substance to it. I connected it to it more. More introspection was buried in this collection. I have also always wanted to explore the colour grey. And, yeah, I guess the grey stems from the cemetery as well, as you know, just the grey area of a heartbreak. You don’t know where or what to do. You don’t know how to navigate it. You’re trying to figure it out. And it’s just a grey area. And this is me accepting the grey area, not just in the heartbreak but also in life. I don’t know what I’m doing, but I’m just doing it anyway. It’s intense
Can you give me a quick rundown of the casting process? I mean, I know that you got some celebrities in there. How was that whole process?
I mean, most of these, every single person in there I’ve known throughout my life in London. We have Parma Ham, a very iconic figure in the Gothic, an iconic figure in the goth scene, in the goth subculture of London. I think goth Gothic is very different from the goth subculture in terms of Gothic, which focuses on literature, architecture, and romance, whereas the goth subculture stems from music. That’s as simple as I can explain it. Yeah, those two don’t. They’re very interlinked, but they’re not the same thing. The Gothic inspires a lot of the gothic subculture. Bambie Thug opened for my show. They’re iconic in the alternative scene and pop music nowadays. We met through Eurovision. They were a Eurovision contestant and shook the whole Eurovision contest. They just basically turned it upside down.
They were the most iconic contestant, and I thoroughly relate to the aesthetics, music, sound, and lyricism. So, I was styling Bambie. I was styling and dressing Bambie during their Cork concert. So we went to Ireland together, and we just had a blast. We got to know Bambie even more throughout my days as a designer. Alivien (Formerly Kid Brunswick) is a friend of mine. We also met online. I’ve always been a big fan of their music, and so it was how we became friends because the London scene, the creative scene, is relatively small. It’s a tight-knit, tiny group of creatives. So, one day, I just hung out with Alivien, and we made art. I styled their music video ‘Collide.’ He was inspired by my aesthetics for his latest EP. Yeah, there’s just a great synergy between me and Alivien. And yeah, once I found out that I was gonna do London Fashion Week, I thought of him first because I know he likes to model, he is confident, and he embodies everything that I want in a muse.
And I had a friend, George, who had never modelled before. So that was an exciting experience for him. He specialises in bodybuilding, and he loves the gym and aesthetics. Same with Ashley. He’s a dancer; he’s a GO, GO dancer. He’s a performer. He does everything. I think the last time I saw him was at Fka Twigs, Eusexua rave at Rafe in South London. And I was like, Oh my gosh, I need him to model for my collection. He’s modelled for me before, and he’s worn my designs before. So I was like, Oh well, what? What a great way to start Fashion Week with someone who’s already worn your stuff.
Were there any difficulties during the rehearsals?
Not really. I trusted Bambie immediately because I’ve worked with them before. I’ve seen their stage presence. I’ve seen Harry. I’ve seen Alivien’s stage presence. I know what Parma Ham is like with DJ sets and the goth scene. I know George exactly; I know precisely how Ashley performs and dances on stage. There’s confidence, and Charity is insanely talented, artistically and visually, as well as creatively. So, all these people that I chose were carefully thought out, and I value their confidence in the public eye. And it’s the same with George. He’s never, he’d never modelled before, until this, but he had participated in one of those body building competitions.
Could you tell us anything about the immediate future?
I have a lot of work to do; you guys can keep up with my YouTube channel if you want. I’ve got many things coming, but I don’t want to say anything.
Jean Louie Castillo remains a highlight of LFW; this latest runway exemplifies his gothic and eye-catching style. The show was about creativity, passion, sadness, and understanding—an understanding of loss and the inevitability of death and heartbreak. However, an understanding between an artist and his muses also requires knowledge of what is needed, wanted, and necessary to bring out the vision. What Jean plans next remains a mystery, but the buzz off of LFW and the features in multiple magazines will give a new audience to the designer.
Words by Ricky Labrada