Gareth Pugh Visual Research Journal

GARETH PUGH.

M O D E R N A R M O U R

A U T U M N / W I N T E R1 5

J A M E S T U S T I N

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V I S U A L R E S E A R C H J O U R N A L

Gareth Pugh has his design roots in cos-tume, in his teens began making costumes for the National Youth Theatre which lead him to study at the Sunderland College of Art. Pugh was first discovered after a piece from his graduate collection from Central Saint Martins was featured on the cover of Dazed and Confused. During this time he interned for Rick Owens and his talent was spotted by Owens’ wife Michelle Lamy who too Ga-reth under her wing. The Rick Owens com-pany have funded the rise in Gareth Pugh purchasing a 49% stake in his label and have introduced him to, and funded the work of his Italian manufacturers Olmar and Mirta.

Gareth Pugh’s eponymous label’s first show was in London in 2005 and quickly created something of a cult following, also providing the brand with enough press exposure to gain sponsorship from the NEWGEN program . Garments featured a dark colour-pallet and were heavily influenced by costume featuring PVC and inflatable pieces. Much of his history with costume and gothic clothing is still visible in Pugh’s collections and performance is still very influential in his shows, even when other designers are straying away from theatrics.

His theatrical and performance inspired ap-proach led to Pugh cultivating a relation-ship with Ruth Hogben of SHOWSTUDIO fame, the two have collaborated to create a number of fashion films together. When he was invited to Pitti Uomo, Gareth pre-sented a special collection via large-scale video installation, directed by Hogben.

Gareth Pugh’s first collections consisted solely of runway pieces that were simply impossible to purchase, now however piec-es are available in a number of boutiques and multi brand stores internationally in-cluding Dover Street Market and Selfridges.

The brand currently has one flagship store in Hong Kong which was opened in 2011, but have no plans to open anymore anytime soon.

Commercial success has not come easi-ly to the brand and there have been times where Pugh says “he has struggled to make ends meet”, due to the very nature Gareth Pugh’s brand of innovative luxury breaking even becomes difficult. Extreme pieces con-structed out of fine materials, have proven to lack appeal to the market who can actually afford them. The ‘Gareth Pugh Customer’ is difficult to pinpoint, perhaps the best exam-ple is Daphne Guinness, whom was a friend of the late Lee Alexander McQueen and Is-abella Blow. Guinness has on numerous oc-casions purchased Pugh’s entire collections.

Pugh’s garments are attractive to large cult following of young fans, mainly in Asia who religiously follow brands like Gareth Pugh and Rick Owens. In 2013 the brand collab-orated with the LA based jewellery brand Chrome Hearts something that seemed somewhat natural due to the aligned aesthet-ics of the brands and their shared fan base, this was perhaps something in Michelle Lamy’s mind when she introduced Pugh to the Stark family behind the Chrome Hearts brand. The collaboration was produced in alignment with his S/S14 show and consist-ed of an assortment of 14 pieces including boots, gloves, jackets and floor-legnth skirts. The collection was sold in Chrome Hearts 22 worldwide outlets in very limited numbers and sold out almost immediately. The collab-oration was particularly successful because it showed two brands who create high-qual-ity, luxury pieces that do not always con-form to what is described as ‘luxury fashion’.

Although nobody would even consider Ga-reth Pugh to be a mainstream designer, he has worked with a number of pop-artistes including Beyonce, Lady Gaga and Rihan-na. The brand is not particularly active on social media they has a Twitter account but only for the studio, when an informal discussion occurs between the brand and its 2,731 followers. They also operate their own Instagram page which mainly features backstage pictures and showroom snap-shots. All of these accounts are handled by Gareth’s partner and showroom manager Carson McColl. The brand doesn’t operate a Facebook page, but both Pugh’s latest and most recent collections have been fea-tured in both print and online media. Publi-cations such as Dazed and Confused and iD featured reviews of his S/S15 show. It is somewhat unusual that the brand’s online presence is handled in-house, when their Public Relations is handled by Karla Otto.

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W E A R I N GG A R E T H P U G H

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Autumn / Winter 2015 is the first time Ga-reth Pugh has shown in London in 7 Years. Previously he has shown in Paris, New York and Florence. It is a significant home-coming for Gareth returning to London where his fashion career started and it is fitting that such a return would occur on his eponymous label’s 10th Anniversary.

The show was a celebration of Britain and the brand’s British identity. The chants of Sunderland Football Club were featured in the soundtrack, Sunderland being Pugh’s hometown. Models sported red crosses, the flag of St. George painted accross their fac-es. The backdrop for the show was a mov-ing image piece by Ruth Hogben, featuring a model cutting her long blond hair again with the collections signiture body paint.

M E D I AC O V E R A G E

Coverage in print, images left to right:Time Out & Daphne Guinness, Coco Rocha for US Vogue, Coco Rocha for US VogueDazed and Confused Japan, Andrej Pejic for Dazed and Confused, i-D magazine coverCarson McColl & Gareth Pugh for i-D, Gareth Pugh for British Vogue, i-D magazine cover

M E D I AC O V E R A G E

Celebrities in Gareth Pugh, images left to right:BeyoncéNicki Minaj, Anna Dello Russo, Rihanna

“I ended up at the Met Ball and found myself having a fag with Christian Slater in the toilets while David Beckham took a piss at the urinal. The

toilets there are a real superstar clusterf*ck. I just couldn’t work out why I was there.”

Gareth Pugh doesn’t operate many social media accounts but Instagram is a platform that the brand uses to engage with its pub-lics. The account is handled by Gareth’s partner and showroom manager Carson Mc-Coll and is less proffessional and more like a personal account, featuring holiday snaps, backstage shots and snipits from Pugh’s daily life. @garethpughstudio has 18,500 followers and each image recieves around 300 likes. The account does give followers a glimps of the off-duty life of Gareth Pugh.

Gender: Female / Male

AGe: 18-55

economic StAtuS: Middle/Upper Class

income level: £60,000 and above

occupAtion: The Arts; fashion, music, design, city professional

demoGrAphic: Fashion forward individuals who want to express themselves through their clothing choices. People who want to push the boundries of gender steriotypes and binary oppositions.

lifeStyle: Daily life includes spending time with other creatives, trying their hand at something new, visiting galleries, often going to high profile events but not fitting into the ‘in crowd’.

pSycoloGicAl profile: A non-conformist and lives life to the idea of contramundum.

hobbieS: Working hard, exploring the world and searching for the newest undescovered thing.

conSumer hAbitS: She/he shops a couple of times of a month exclusively at high-quality, high end re-tailers. He is deeply interested quality of the garments and the way in which they make her feel.

THE GARETH PUGH CONSUMER

Gender: Female / Male

AGe: 18-55

economic StAtuS: Middle/Upper Class

income level: £60,000 and above

occupAtion: The Arts; fashion, music, design, city professional

demoGrAphic: Fashion forward individuals who want to express themselves through their clothing choices. People who want to push the boundries of gender steriotypes and binary oppositions.

lifeStyle: Daily life includes spending time with other creatives, trying their hand at something new, visiting galleries, often going to high profile events but not fitting into the ‘in crowd’.

pSycoloGicAl profile: A non-conformist and lives life to the idea of contramundum.

hobbieS: Working hard, exploring the world and searching for the newest undescovered thing.

conSumer hAbitS: She/he shops a couple of times of a month exclusively at high-quality, high end re-tailers. He is deeply interested quality of the garments and the way in which they make her feel.

When I considered competitors of Gareth Pugh I had to reconsider a number of times. Although the brand has a dark and gothic aesthetic so fits alongside brands like Rick Owens, it is aslo very elegant and luxuri-ous which let me to consider a the likes of Haider Ackermann. What really proved as a point of difference for Gareth over designers like Ann Demeulemeester was his impres-sive number of collaborations with brands like Absolute Vodka and Chrome Hearts.

C O M P E T I TO R VA LU E P RO P O S I T I O N

Ann Demeulemeester Classic elegance, redifinedRick Owens Avant-garde, high quality urbanwearHaider Ackermann Gothing, elongated opulenceIsaac Sellam Innovation, techniqe and quality leather

AU D I E N C E AU T H O R I T Y

Formal Professionals looking for clothes with a twist

Suits, long tuxedo jackets and ‘English pilgrim’ inspired clothing

Young urban creatuves looking for unique practical clothing

Chunky sneakers, sweatpants and modal cotton shirts

Fashion aware women seek-ing luxurious yet contemporary clothing

Long silhouettes, leather and texture

Fashion outcasts who want quality

Quality leather, gothic form, monochromatic palate.

Gareth Pugh doesn’t currenlty have any standalone retail stores in the UK. The brand had a flagship store in Hong Kong, which is significant as Asia is Gareth the brands strongest area for sales. The brand does have a small number of retailers and concessions in the United Kingdom. Sel-fridges, Layers and 127 Bricklane are its two retailers in London with the addition of Hervia Bazaar in Manchester and Liverpool.

International and e-retailers include:• Antonioli

• L’inde Le Palais• Ssense

• Luisa Via Roma• Daad Dantone

H O M E • C O L L E C T I O N • S H O P O N L I N E • A R C H I V E S • I N T E R V I E W S • S T O R E S • I N S TA G R A M • Y O U T U B E • C O N TA C T

M O D E R N A R M O U RAutumn - Winter 2015 - 2016 ColleCtion

I M M E R S I V E L I V E P E R F O R M A N C E

Spring - Summer 2015 ColleCtion

C O L L E C T I O N V I D E O

C O L L E C T I O N V I D E O

© G a r e t h P u g h 2 0 1 5

As the brand doesn’t currently have a web-site or any forum online it is essential to have a place where all origingal content and infor-mation can be presented. I looked at a num-ber of different websites from designers who share the same aesthetics as Pugh and also ones from the same sector of the market.

G A R E T H P U G H A F T E R P A R T Y


lAte niGht chAmeleon cAfe • ShAckwell StudioS • 18-24 ShAcklewell lAne

e8 2eZ

15 • 2 • 15 8pm

For both events I wanted to consider the AW15 collection and the way it was pre-sented. I also wanted to take into ac-count the personality of the brand howev-er I wanted to help reinvent it. Both buyers and press know what to expect from Pugh therefore more luxurious and bright invita-tions provide a new element of intreague.

There is always a presence of black in ev-erything Gareth Pugh does and very lit-tle material relating to everything that he does features very little colour. Of course there is no sense in completely changing what we provide guests with as they will see an air of insincerity, however through simple reinvetion of press materials a new look to Gareth Pugh can be created.

G A R E T H P U G H A W 2 0 1 5


hoxton GAllery • 9 kinGSlAnd roAd • london E2 8AA

21 • 2 • 15 8:30pm

When considering a location for the after par-ty there were a number of things to take into account. It was really important to think about what would best fit the designer and what would best fit the guests. Of course Gareth Pugh is well known for being a party kid and fits into a ‘scene’ but when comes downs to it you don’t just want to play up to stereotypes.

Evidenlty Gareth Pugh is not a typical lux-ury designer and it took a lot of time to find a space that fits in with the brand but also helps to translate Gareth’s personality. As LN-CC was refurbished this year it just seemed like the perfect location, it wasn’t overly glamerous and in a club but was pol-ished and fitted with the brand’s identity.

I M A G ER E F E R E N C E S

Gareth Studio: http://www.refinery29.com/static/bin/entry/de8/x/32239/gareth-pugh-t-magazine-1.jpg

Runway Images: http://garethpugh.blogspot.co.uk/p/collections.html

AW15 Images: http://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/gal-lery/19369/8/gareth-pugh-aw15

Dazed Press: http://www.tonguechic.com/wp-content/up-loads/0004/5396/2347801612_251d2cb3a1_o.jpg

Andrej Dazed: http://prettynpoppington.com/wp-content/up-loads/2011/04/andrejpejic-dazed6.jpg

iD Cover: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/97/fa/5e/97fa5ee01f6257e6a5ec4b443c56b2cb.jpg

Gareth Carson iD: https://i-d-images.vice.com/images/articles/meta/2014/10/27/untitled-article-1414420909.jpg?crop=1x-w:0.4215xh;center,top&resize=1200:*&output-format=image/jpeg&output-quality=90

Vogue: http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/2009/12/14/gareth-pugh-and-fred-butler-at-showstudio-shop/gallery/436846

iD: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/a2/84/61/a2846162ccac07770557341b1ca59e56.jpg

Gareth Pugh i-D editorial: http://idreamofaworldofcouture.tumblr.com/post/19684904454

Celebrity Images: http://garethpugh.blogspot.co.uk/p/fa-mous-fans.html

Rihanna: http://images.eonline.com/eol_images/Entire_Site/20090630/293.rihanna.063009.jpg

Gareth Pugh Quote: http://flavorwire.com/366089/the-fashion-in-dustrys-10-most-eccentric-designers-2/9

Gareth Pugh Visual Research Journal

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