David Hellqvist discusses emotional anarchy and political fashion with the menswear designer ahead of his expo at London’s OTHER/Shop
There are some designers that think fashion is superficial. They say clothes and politics have nothing in common and should be kept apart. It’s true that culture, for example a painting, doesn’t have to carry a political message, but it’s quite easy for the artist to add such a layer, should he or she wish to. The same goes for fashion. But they don’t have to use slogans à la Katherine Hamnett or constantly talk about global warming, like Vivienne Westwood. There are other, more subtle ways, of making your designs inherently political, as London designer Matthew Miller shows. On the back of his London Collections: Men show for AW14, the menswear designer is this week launching a capsule show at Soho’s OTHER/Shop. Refusing not to let his clothes express feelings and emotions, Miller have added another visual layer – with the help of Studio Baron – by allowing these images to tell the story of his collection through emotional anarchy.
What is ’emotional anarchy’?
It’s a form of expression, in its simple form. It’s universally known that men who express themselves emotionally are generally suppressed by society. In an array of forms, it is – as a man – not really socially acceptable to express your feelings. I decided to let men express their inner most feelings and mix these with anarchic symbols. This created these really powerful images of marching masculinity, brandishing black flags emblazoned with their inner most fears.
“I decided to let men express their inner most feelings and mix these with anarchic symbols”
Who are the 13 Apostles?
It’s a reference to the IRA Freedom Fighters, The 12 Apostles. For me, 13 represents every letter of my name, every one of the apostles is holding a different funeral letter, spelling out my name.
Why is emotional anarchy relevant to us in 2014?
Because the world should fear the minorities and issues that they choose to ignore or suppress. We’ve seen over the last four years the destruction of societies across the globe. If we don’t talk, or tell each other the way we feel, it only causes chaos death and destruction. In modern history we are more connected than ever before, but more distant than ever.
Tell me about the images, what did you look at for inspiration?
For the photo shoot we took heavy influences from the photographs of para-military soldiers, their stances, and what it meant to be part of a minority, fighting for a cause you inherently believed in; the draped flags, the colours, the funeral flowers of a brother in arms. We also looked at portraits of political leaders at the time, to reference the posture and stance. The back drop, references a party political conference, the emotional anarchy party political conference.
How do you work up these themes, they are very dark?
Yes, I’m very dark in my references, and I think you can only really re-appropriate and reference what you know. I work in the fashion industry, but as a designer I don’t really have what is considered a normal view of what luxury is. I see luxury as being freedom of expression, a scar to remember a moment, or an industrial piece of scaffolding for its design sensibilities. For me, it’s anything but jewels, diamonds and all the superfluous icons of luxury. Old luxury is dead. Long live social luxury!
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Who did you work with, and why, on this project?
I worked very closely with Studio Baron. Jonathan Baron and Matthew Holroyd shot, styled and art directed the shoot. I really enjoy working with people, and no more than these two individuals. They really know my dark references, and really understand them. And they brought so much to this shoot. They’re really intelligent guys.
