Save this story Save Story Save this story A Cold Wall is making a fresh start. The label, founded in 2015 by Samuel Ross — and then sold in 2024 — has named Joshua Bullen as its first “designer in residence”. Bullen, 38, whose CV includes Stone Island, Givenchy and Kenzo, will show his first collection for A Cold Wall next January at a presentation in Paris.
Bullen said he plans to build on the progressive identity established by Ross while expanding the brand’s product proposition. “Samuel created something that didn’t exist at the time,” Bullen said of Ross, whose work at A Cold Wall was closely informed by social inclusion and contemporary architecture. “I think respecting that, we really want to push it into something that is primarily a clothing brand. A Cold Wall is unique, and we really have big ambitions for it.”
The appointment marks the latest chapter in the evolution of a brand that emerged as one of the most culturally resonant London labels of the 2010s. A former intern and protégé of Virgil Abloh, Ross established A Cold Wall as a vehicle for examining the intersections of architecture, class, race and contemporary British life through clothing.
Samuel Ross taking a bow at his first Milan runway show.
Ross’s startup attracted an international following and, in 2018, investment from fashion accelerator Tomorrow, which subsequently acquired full ownership when Ross decided to move on to other projects in February 2024. Nine months later, Tomorrow sold the business on to Four Marketing , the London-based distribution and retail group whose largest shareholder is Frasers Group. Ross, meanwhile, has relocated to Northamptonshire in the UK while continuing to develop SR_A, his design studio, where his output spans made-to-order clothing under the Atelier label to industrial design collaborations with partners including Whoop .
“It’s about having a startup mentality with a head start,” said Ben Banks, Four Marketing’s co-founder and CEO, of the opportunity he sees in A Cold Wall. “There is good brand recognition and there’s good social following.” Banks, who mentored Ross through the British Fashion Council’s Newgen program, acknowledged the challenge of turning that recognition into revenue. “As a brand, it was big on cultural and reputational equity, but not so big on overall sales. I think the challenge is to keep those two things relatively aligned.”
Four Marketing is now preparing to expand A Cold Wall’s international reach, particularly in the US, which Banks said already accounts for the largest share of traffic to the brand’s website. The label plans to introduce US-based fulfillment from February 2027 to speed up deliveries and reduce costs for American customers. It is also finalizing arrangements for a US showroom to represent the brand for the FW27 season. Longer term, Banks said the group hopes to open A Cold Wall’s first London store.
Four Marketing has spent nearly three decades building UK businesses for brands including Stone Island and CP Company , while also developing its own acquisitions, including Agent Provocateur in 2017. Banks said he views A Cold Wall as an opportunity to apply that experience to a highly regarded British menswear label whose creative and commercial direction his group can determine for itself.
Looks from the A Cold Wall Fall 2021 collection (left) and Fall 2022 (right).
Bullen’s unusual “designer in residence” title reflects a collaborative approach to the brand’s creative development, and is deliberately open-ended. “There’s no timeline to it: it could last for as long as we want it to last for,” said Bullen, who is also working alongside director and creative consultant Nick Griffiths. “It’s a group thing,” he added. “Neither of us care what our titles are.”
Banks said: “We wanted to bring in a head designer creative that had an alignment of product values without feeling the necessity to impose some sort of completely new code on the brand to stand out.” His ambition, he added, is to create “a progressive selection of garments that also have everyday functionality.” The brand’s name has already been simplified, shedding Ross’s hyphens and asterisk.
For Bullen, the appointment marks a return to fashion design following his departure from Kenzo, where he worked as design director under Nigo. Previously, he was design director of menswear at Givenchy, following more than a decade at Stone Island. Bullen said he is working directly with the brand’s existing product department and added that the forthcoming collection will include tailoring made in London.
The new collection will be presented in Paris during the menswear fashion week in January, alongside a broader cultural program encompassing an exhibition and music. Banks said the objective is to establish an identity that builds on Ross’s original vision without attempting to replicate it. “I think sometimes the biggest mistake that anyone can make is to try and emulate,” he said. “To try and think what somebody else would be thinking, and to mimic it.”
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Source: Lifestyle
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