Agi & Sam: menswear mavericks

‘I never wear print. Or colour. It doesn’t suit me and it never will.’ An unusual statement given that it comes from Sam Cotton, the print designer behind Agi & Sam’s most extrovert menswear pieces. The pair are currently two of the leading lights in British fashion, designing tailoring with an irreverence that has seen them fashion patterns of oversized chickens and source polyester made from recycled bottles.

‘Some men are never going to wear our stuff – I guess it is a bit weird that one of them is Sam,’ admits Agi Mdumulla, the more sartorially adventurous of the two. ‘It has to be worn with confidence, and styled with plain separates.’ In the past, they’ve jokingly described the Agi & Sam man as someone who ‘talks a little bit too closely in your ear’. But in reality, their fashion is winning over all types of men – their witty and adventurous sensibilities chime with a burgeoning taste for experimental menswear which has been picked up on by department stores across the capital. And now Topman.

The pair have come to the high street giant’s personal styling suite on Oxford Street to coax Time Out’s reluctant menfolk into livening up their looks – after all, if they can wear it, anyone can.