Boho and Beyond
HE DEFINED ’90S FASHION AND BROUGHT HIPPY CHIC TO THE CATWALK. Melissa Twigg TALKS TO Matthew Williamson ABOUT CENTRAL SAINT MARTINS, THE BRAND’S DNA AND HIS IDEAL IBIZA GIRL
Hippy chic returns with designer darling Matthew Williamson
My design philosophy is to make women look like peacocks,” says Matthew Williamson. “The highest compliment I can get about my clothes is that they make you feel pretty or sexy or glamorous, because isn’t that what everyone is looking for when they go out at night?”
It may sound like a simple concept, but words like “pretty” are rarely tossed around in the world of high fashion, particularly in the avant-garde hub that is east London, where Williamson works and lives. At the age of 17, he moved there from Manchester to attend Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, a creative hotbed where eccentricity is prized above all else.
Williamson immediately noticed that his aesthetic differed from that of his classmates, but he persisted in using the bright fabrics that would later define his work. “I was 17 years old—the youngest on a course of 60 people. And everyone else was doing conceptual fashion and there was me looking at photos of the Rio Carnival,” he says. “I have always wanted to design clothes women feel attractive in, that make them look better, which was a weird concept at Saint Martins, as I’m pretty sure I was the only person with happy thoughts there.”
Williamson’s feathers, sequins and bold colour palette may not have won him the admiration of his peers, but his meteoric rise to fame after graduation has become fashion folklore. In 1997, Williamson arranged his first catwalk show and somehow persuaded London It girl Jade Jagger, daughter of Mick, to model for him. She asked her friends Kate Moss and Helena Christensen to join her, and their presence attracted the press. The day after his show, Williamson went from unknown fashion graduate to household name, appearing on the front pages of national newspapers and touted as the ‘one to watch’ in glossy magazines.
“If my terrible memory can recall, it was a fabulous time, but it was all overnight—one minute we weren’t known, and the next we were,” he says. “We had to manage our steps very carefully, partly because we had a tiny
design team and partly because we didn’t want to saturate the market. I also needed to make the hype more about the dress than the girl who was wearing it.”
We meet for coffee at Café Gray Deluxe in the Upper House on a rainy summer’s day, but Williamson is happy to reminisce about his past while looking out over Victoria Harbour. “I could sit here all day. I think this is an incredible city,” he says. “The energy here is overwhelming. I imagine you could get addicted to it. I also love the way women dress here. It’s groomed, but it’s still interesting and I’ve noticed there are a lot of great shoes around.”
In Hong Kong, Matthew Williamson is only stocked in Harvey Nichols, but the brand hopes to open a stand-alone store soon. “My clothes tend to be popular in hot countries,” he says. “When I design my pieces, I always think of a beautiful girl in Ibiza or India with this wonderfully jetset life, and I know that look would work here.”
Nonetheless, Williamson has attempted to move away from his distinctive Boho style in the past year. “I do think it is important to have that sense of clarity and be super clear about what your brand DNA is,” he says. “However, at times it can be suffocating and frustrating. People have such preconceptions of what we’re about; even when there’s nothing Indian or ethnic in the collection, they still put the same things in the reviews.”
He continues, “Recently I decided to do something a bit different. I thought about my Ibiza girl and decided that, unfortunately, she probably has to leave the beach sometimes and go into an office. So we decided to imagine her entire wardrobe, from cocktail dresses to coats and jackets. When I went backstage before the show, it was like being in Anita Pallenberg’s bedroom.”
With a collection of wallpaper coming out for Osborne & Little, Williamson is also looking into the wonderful world of interiors. “I love decorating my house, so I thought, why not do it professionally? My own home is definitely Boho, but in an ordered way. Ordered Boho—actually, that’s a great way of describing virtually every aspect my life.”
“I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO DESIGN CLOTHES WOMEN FEEL ATTRACTIVE IN, THAT MAKE THEM LOOK BETTER”