Two friends who met while interning at McQueen, and whose infectiously exuberant, playfully genteel formalwear has carved out an instantly recognisable niche within London’s thriving menswear scene. A Danish designer with a spectacularly subversive way with streetwear, splicing uber-masculine iconography and day-glo palettes with jarring sexual undercurrents. And a Southern California native, who juggled working for Jeremy Scott whilst studying for his degree at Central Saint Martins, and whose luxuriously grungy fusions of texture and pattern dazzled the audiences at his graduation last year.
Thanks to Fashion East’s selection committee, Agape Mdumulla, Sam Cotton, Astrid Andersen and Shaun Samson will find themselves sharing a compact backstage space at Covent Garden’s Royal Opera House this month, as they combine forces for what promises to be an electrifying show. They’ve arrived here from very different directions, experiences and influences, stretching from Copenhagen to San Diego to Stratford-upon-Avon, but – right here, right now – their names are the ones that look set to define London menswear for Autumn/Winter 2012, and beyond.
With the show date fast approaching, all four took time out to talk to Fashion156 about the upcoming show, about their hopes for the just-announced London menswear showcase in June, and about the reality of life as a young designer – the highs and lows, the pleasures and pressures – in today’s intense, high-speed world. And they shared some tantalising glimpses of what we can look forward to on the big day – a heady mix of time machines, tweeds, soft toys, reflective textiles and high school sport uniforms. Oh, and Kit Kats.
Firstly, congratulations on being selected to be part of the MAN showcase! Does knowing that you’re going to be part of that type of show affect your creative process at all?
Agi & Sam: Yes massively. When we first started it was easy to do a collection without any expectations and where the repercussions weren’t really that significant. Doing a show now has given us a wider audience all expecting standards and qualities needed to show at MAN. Also, social media puts a massive pressure on you as you gain more exposure; after the announcement was made we had loads of people saying to us how excited they were to see our next collection and how much they like our stuff, this really gave us the willies.
Astrid Andersen: When you get that kind of support if anything it just gives you the boost to keep on doing exactly what you’re doing – I’m a firm believer in staying true to your own vision. Designing for catwalk gives me more freedom as I’m designing more looks than in past seasons.
Shaun Samson: I’m grateful that MAN have invited me to show again. The selection panel at MAN are all exceptional and influential people that I look up to, so to have their support allows me to be even more creative. I can just do what I do. I don’t want to let them or the integrity of the MAN show down so I do my best to make it a good show.
As recent graduates, how have you found the transition from college to working life – particularly all the practicalities?
Astrid Andersen: I’ve been really lucky since graduating to have crossed paths with some amazing people who have supported me through this in both Denmark and the UK. Building great relationships and working with like minded people who you trust is so important when you’re starting out.
Shaun Samson: It’s actually quite exciting having to find a studio space. It’s like an explorer wanting to establish a new colony.
Agi & Sam: We never realized how easy we had it at University. I think it was the richest I’ve ever been having a grant and loan, I could buy books and actually go out and drink. The transition to working I think comes when you are interning, especially for big houses. They make you understand the kind of dedication and work ethic you need to be successful in fashion.
What’s life like as a working young designer, in London these days? What are the highs and lows?
Shaun Samson: It’s a lot of hard work and very unpredictable, but in a good way. There are so many awesome magazines, stylists, and writers in London that support new talent that you never know who’s going to email you or who want’s to collaborate with you. London is a great place to start a label.
Agi & Sam: It’s hard, I’m not going to lie. Obviously it’s amazing the opportunities we have been given, and having been awarded MAN is the first real big rung on the ladder we have to climb. It’s crazy how we have gone from working out of Agi’s living room, designing whatever we wanted to now having a studio and considering so many things that we could never even have imagined. Print wearability, accessibility of the collection, fabric sourcing costs and production.
The hardest thing is just time really, there isn’t enough hours in the day to do what you want. Also space, we desperately need a bigger studio as we’ve quickly outgrown ours. Highs are to us doing something we love and trying to have fun with it, it’s what gives us the drive to keep going. We are still young and we really don’t want to get to a stage in our life and think, ‘I wish I’d tried that, or worked a bit harder to achieve what we want’. Anything you try and do on your own back is going to be hard no matter what it is.
Astrid Andersen: My career high so far is going to be seeing my collection go down the catwalk during London Fashion Week in February – this is what I’ve been working towards. For now at least, I’m only focusing on the highs.
The speed of fashion is something that’s been debated heavily in recent seasons. How do you deal with the pressure of the six-month cycle?
Astrid Andersen: For me as a designer it’s great to be able to keep constantly designing and I always think it’s good to keep busy. It’s just human nature, we’re all looking for something new.
Shaun Samson: It would be a dream to just design a collection every 6 months. That’s definitely doable. It’s the production and selling calendar that overlaps with the design calendar that makes things super stressful.
Agi & Sam: It’s something we are still learning how to deal with really. No one really teaches you how to do it, so I think everyone has their own trial and errors methods. We’ve learnt planning is a massively important part of getting the season to work. Literally setting deadlines for yourself and having to hit them. If you don’t hit one, even if the show is 5 months away you have to make it up working all nighters, because you end up just getting backlogged.
There’s a lot of excitement about the newly-announced London menswear week, which is coming up in June. What are your thoughts about it, especially given that you’ll have just 4 months to deliver a new collection?
Shaun Samson: It’s a defining moment in London which is a rare thing to know about before it happens. We’re really lucky that we’re here to experience and be part of it. I’m sure all designers have enough ideas to make 10 different collections, so It’ll be a challenge to make a collection in 4 months but it shouldn’t be too big a problem.
Astrid Andersen: Anything that supports British menswear internationally has to be a good thing!
Agi & Sam: It’s great for menswear in London. People have been asking for this to happen for a long time. It just makes more sense having everything structured for the industry. Buyers will have their budgets, designers will have their collections and hopefully that means we can make some more sales! The first season is going to be hell. Luckily we already know what we are doing and I’ve already half designed some of the prints so we can just get cracking straight away.
What can you tell us about your inspirations for this season?
Agi & Sam: The story behind the Muse for our collection comes from a man called Eloi Cole, who was found outside the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland in a bin. When questioned he stated that he was from the future and had come back in his time machine to stop the experiment as it had worked and the world had become a communist hell hole, where currency and countries cease to exist and Kit Kat’s are the driving force of life. The police described the man as wearing too much tweed for a man of this era and promptly sent him to a mental institute where he somehow escaped. The police stated they were baffled but not that bothered.
Astrid Andersen: I’m still inspired by luxury sportswear and an urban aesthetic. I don’t want to give too much away, but I’m working with some exciting new textiles this season including 3M reflective work wear fabric.
Shaun Samson: It vibes off my Spring/Summer collection in that it visits my years growing up in California. More Latino street culture, High School sports uniforms, and plush toy references.
Image Source: From top Shaun Samson, Astrid Andersen, Agi & Sam, London Fashion Week, Mark Shearwood for Fashion156, Iakovos Kalaitzakis for Fashion156
