Fashion in Motion: Gareth Pugh

 

Gareth Pugh made his catwalk debut under the wing of Fashion East in 2005. Even his Central Saint Martins graduate collection in 2003 got the Dazed & Confused crowd salivating, all overblown bulbous shapes and full-on theatrics, forget wearable practicality. In a relatively short amount of time Pugh has evolved from experimental student into the ‘must-see’ show at London Fashion Week. Much like McQueen in his early London days, Pugh brings excitement and innovation to the catwalk and the fashion crowd can’t get enough of it.

 

 

 

For his Fashion in Motion show Pugh presented 27 outfits from his previous collections rounding off with his light-up coat that featured in the HSBC advert. Held in the Raphael Gallery, each of the four shows performed to a completely packed room, leaving some rather disappointed faces loitering around outside. Even industry folk took up front row pews, clearly a biannual outing from Pugh at London Fashion Week is not enough.

 

 

 

 

The V&A press office said they were overwhelmed with interest for Pugh’s shows. While designer Ziad Ghanem commented: “Fashion needs someone like Gareth Pugh to shake things up a bit. The show featured all his best pieces and the audience loved it, they were cheering and clapping, it was very exciting.”

 

 

Presenting pieces such as his wind-up drummer girl, his harlequin jacket and his legendary inflatable garments, the models were often gimp masked and clad in the highest of hooker heels. Avant-garde magazines aside, who buys Pugh’s stuff? Surprisingly he is the latest hit with the ‘lady who lunch’ brigade, they simply adore his PVC coats. His designs have also featured in Kylie’s ‘Showgirl’ tour and this August his first selling collection will appear in stores such as Browns Focus, The Pineal Eye, Liberty, London and Barneys, New York.

 

 

Meanwhile, we will just have to wait and see what Gareth Pugh has up his sleeve next – roll on London Fashion Week.

 

 

For details of the next Fashion in Motion event visit the V&A website

http://www.vam.ac.uk

 

 

 

By Alex Charles and Ziad Ghanem