Ms Sofia Prantera, the founder of Aries, on the street smarts of Plato.

Over the past decade, streetwear has sauntered its way to the zenith of fashion – we now exist in an era where a skate brand collaborating with a luxury fashion house is de rigueur, and fashion’s cool cache now belongs to the streetwear designers. That’s why Messrs Virgil Abloh and Demna Gvasalia hold some of the top positions in fashion as designers at Louis Vuitton menswear and Balenciaga respectively, and why a cult sneaker drop can create more interest among millennials than a local election.

In this age of hype, though, streetwear brands need something more than just natty clothes, and that’s where London-based Aries comes in. A streetwise label known for its unisex designs and nods towards ancient Greece (a Parthenon appears throughout the brand’s latest collection), Aries is one of the more interesting brands to ride streetwear’s wave of popularity, and sits in that rare sartorial space somewhere between the mainstream and esoteric. After focusing primarily on womenswear – but becoming a hit with men nonetheless – Aries launched its first men’s collection with MR PORTER at the beginning of 2018.

Originally attracted to the punkish energy of fringe fashion publications such as The Face, and extreme designers like Mr Leigh Bowery and Mr Christopher Nemeth, the brand’s founder Ms Sofia Prantera realised that a lot of the sensibility of the 1980s was about the clothes on the street rather than the runway. “Whether we like it or not, [fashion] influences the way we live our everyday lives,” Ms Prantera writes in Aries’ brand book. “And this made me feel even more strongly about making the essence of Aries so undefinable.”

Call it reverse psychology, but the brand’s definition-defying sensibility just makes us more curious, so we spoke to Ms Prantera about how Aries began, if the term “streetwear” has become meaningless, and what the perfect pair of jeans have to do with Plato.

How did you get started with Aries?

“I had sold my old label, Silas, in 2007 just after I had my second child. Creating a brand is an incredibly interesting process – you are inventing a new identity and a creative vehicle that works beyond just designing. We showed our first line for Aries in September 2010: it comprised silk dresses, coach jackets, jeans, and Gildan tees printed with massive graphics. It was possibly the worst year to come up with a streetwear concept, mixed with silk dresses, with no division between menswear and womenswear. It was a commercial disaster.”

You recently made the decision to go into menswear. Can you explain the thinking behind that?

“The first idea was to have a unisex line; I have always worn men’s tees and sweats, baggy men’s trousers and shorts. I grew up in Italy wearing brands like Stone Island and Chevignon, so it seemed superfluous to divide the line by gender; the core part of the line worked for both men and women. For me, clothes are really a vehicle for an idea or culture and it’s about connecting with the people who share those ideas. What I realise now is that most women’s fashion environments don’t really connect with those references or see women’s casualwear as “elevated” enough – and it’s menswear [retailers] where the culture is right for Aries.”

Do you think streetwear is inherently unisex?

“Not necessarily, but I think most women interested in streetwear shop through men’s channels. Streetwear has always been a very male dominated world, much more than other parts of fashion, and this can be quite frustrating. This is why I originally fell out of love with it when, in the 2000s, the female offering become so crass and banal.”

What attracted you to the sensibility of the 1980s in fashion, and what do you mean by streetwear being fashion and vice versa?

“In my opinion, streetwear has always informed fashion – since those early 1980s photos of real people in magazines like i-D. Then at some point in the 2000s, it somehow was hijacked and became synonymous with casual and sportswear. The distinction between fashion and streetwear is now very blurred and it is more of a question of price points and manufacturing quality. It is quite possible that the term streetwear with all its different connotations is finally becoming obsolete.”

So do you see Aries as more fashion or streetwear?

“Aries doesn't have the price points of a traditional streetwear brand – we produce in Italy and our processes are more similar to those of fashion than those of streetwear. Aries includes many items that are specifically associated with womenswear and that don’t belong to a traditional streetwear offering. Our message can be seen as confusing yet I like the idea of going against the traditional marketing ideas of a clear message.”

What are you favourite pieces from your collection at MR PORTER? Any details we should look out for?

“The most important piece for me is the sheepskin jacket: it embodies my design aesthetic, it’s a luxury version of a classic sportswear shape ‘the liner’, which I have been designing since my days working at Slam City Skates in-house label Holmes in the mid-1990s. There is also the Lilly Jean, which is a totally unisex jean; it is made in Italy with Italian selvedge denim and I am really proud of it because it is the perfect generic jean, the perfect pair you find in a second-hand shop. I like to think that they belong to Plato’s world of Forms – they are ‘Jeans’ with a capital ‘J’, not just jeans.”

Shop the entire Aries collection here