A-COLD-WALL*
Sometimes, Samuel Ross has to pause to consider where in the world he is. Today, it’s London, where he’s overseeing a round of fittings; tomorrow he’s off to Milan; the next day, Los Angeles, to finish off a retail installation. That’s two continents, three countries and thousands of air miles in 48 hours. ‘It’s busy,’ he says, unfazed. ‘But I wouldn’t change a thing.’
Ross, the 26-year-old designer of London-based label A-Cold-Wall*, isn’t in this for the jet-setting – he’s intent on using fashion to convey ideas about craft, diversity and the experience of growing up in London, a city full of cold walls. His angular hoodies, multi-pocket coats and technical-fabric trousers manage to come across as both austere and expressive, in a way that appeals to the type of guy who checks cult menswear resale site Grailed the way you might check Instagram.
The clothes have a wide appeal because Ross is emphatic about bringing together disparate lifestyles: ‘I wanted to capture the idea of the inner-city, working-class child and the upper-class child overlapping one another in their experiences. Councilestate pebble-dash buildings and marblefloored, Victorian houses in Islington all have cold walls; they’re both equal and they’re both depictions of modern London.’
Ross identifies more with the former. He was born in Brixton and moved out of London as a child. For him, fashion has always been linked to status and self-expression: he remembers crying when he couldn’t afford Nike or Adidas aged 12, and buying and selling bootlegs on the council estate near his home aged 15. He launched his first T-shirt label at 18 before embarking on a course in graphic design and illustration at Leicester’s De Montfort University. It wasn’t long before Off-White designer Virgil Abloh, then the creative director for Kanye West, came calling. ‘I think he found my work on Instagram,’ says Ross. He joined Abloh’s team and spent the next three years working across Virgil’s first brand, Pyrex Vision, as well as Yeezy,
Hood By Air, A.P.C. and Stussy. ‘That was the real foundation of my experience in building a fashion brand. What I learned from Virgil was the importance of the team – it goes beyond fashion.’
Today, Ross calls Abloh a close friend and mentor, ‘like my brother’. Their brands share bold graphics and an equal amount of hype, and Ross is fine with the comparison – just don’t lump him in with streetwear. ‘[Abloh and I] are part of the generation cultivating this new idea of how streetwear and high fashion can co-exist.’ Ross says he designs for people who love creative expression. It’s working: Selfridges and Barneys New York are among his biggest retail supporters. ‘Designing for the norm is at the bottom of my list; people are already doing that.’
It’s nearly time to head home to Jennifer, his ‘soon-to-be fiancée’, and their baby daughter Genesis, to pack a case for Milan. In case you were wondering, no, he doesn’t sleep very much. He sees himself as ‘an anomaly’ in the fashion circuit: growing up black and British, not going to fashion school or studying design in London. Making it onto the LVMH Prize shortlist has proven a satisfying form of acceptance: ‘It was a kick of validation; that the work is being understood. It shows that the right people comprehend what I’m trying to articulate. It gives me confidence that the work is going well.’ And being on the LVMH shortlist is surely proof of that.
Designing for the norm is at the bottom of my list