The British designer, who has worked in the studios of Louis Vuitton, Givenchy and Fenty, has officially joined the fashion and lifestyle brand after guest-designing several ready-to-wear collections in recent years.

Clayton is currently working on the Paris-based brand’s Fall/Winter 2022 collection, to be revealed to press and buyers in January. Also in the works is a Spring/Summer 2023 runway show — the brand’s very first — which will take place during Paris Fashion Week next June.

Founded in 2002 by Gildas Loaëc and Masaya Kuroki, Kitsuné has grown into a music label, specialty café chain and fashion brand with over 39 physical locations across the world. Its last creative director was South Korean designer Yuni Ahn, who departed the business after two years in January 2020.

In his new role, Clayton plans on building upon the brand’s existing DNA — a mixture of its Paris-Tokyo roots — and strengthening Maison Kitsuné's fashion offering beyond its core jersey products by investing in storytelling, as well as categories like outerwear and denim. “We want to start to give [our] customer a stronger wardrobe and more fashion-forward image,” said Clayton. “The clientele and age range is already there.” Alongside Japan, one of the brand’s strongest markets is South Korea, which he is looking to not only as a sales-driver but as a source of inspiration for the brand’s East-meets-West aesthetic.

Clayton cited the label’s dynamism and its founders’ strong sense of brand identity as reasons for making the leap from luxury. “My best experiences are where the people with their names on the door are still involved in the company. It becomes something more special than working with a sea of executives,” he said.