ARCHIE ALLED-MARTINEZ
THE MILLENNIAL
Gently remind Barcelona-born, London-taught and Paris-based Archie M. Alled-Martinez that he is a millennial, and he scoffs. “Ha! I suppose so. But I feel really... old!” Old? This young designer patently isn’t, although it’s fair to say that since graduating from Central Saint Martins three years ago he’s experienced as much as others would count themselves lucky to in a decade.
“Yes, it was a bit odd. A bit strange. The whole thing was quite surreal, and it all happened very fast.” What happened was that Alled-Martinez’s degree-honed signature knitwear earned him the LVMH Prize for Graduates in 2018, by which time he was already – in part thanks to mentorship from Sarah Mower – in touch with several Parisian houses. The perfect fit seemed Clare Waight
Keller’s emerging team at Givenchy, which he joined for a year. This full immersion in a corporate luxury house led to his meeting Italian suppliers, including one knitwear specialist “which is really big, and works with lots of the most famous houses, but which also has a smaller factory and is interested in development. They were interested in my work, and that’s how it all started.” That was way back when in 2019. His first collection gained traction – and a spot on Vogue Talents – thanks to pieces through which he says: “I’m expressing a flamboyance – a decadent, dandy-esque vibe. But when you put them on, you find they are very easy to wear, and they work just as well on a woman.”
It’s but a small stretch to call these lurex-flecked stretchy knits louche loungewear, and the duality of a sexily retro aesthetic articulated in ultra-modern knit fabrications is something fresh. Among others, that freshness caught the eye of Harry Lambert, stylist to Harry Styles, who dressed the singer in a sequinflecked knit Canadian tuxedo for a gig shortly before Christmas 2019.
And then…: “Obviously, Covid happened. And it’s been bloody tough.” The label presented Spring/ Summer 2021 through the virtual Paris platform, and when we speak Alled-Martinez is back at home in Barcelona, saving on his rent, and planning for his future. Which leads us back to his millennial status. “What saddens me is when people think just because something is in the past, it’s not relevant to them,” he says, then laments the unlearnt lessons of which both Brexit and Trump are a result. This also inflects his work, “because you can only have a modern twist if you understand the context.” In the future, Alled-Martinez anticipates moving on from his languidly etiolated silhouette, in part thanks to consideration of past generations – and past victims of another terrible virus. “I was captivated to discover the work of this generation who were taken by AIDS. When I first learnt about Walter Albini, I didn’t understand why he is not more famous. And although the aesthetic was very different, it’s the same with Franco Moschino. And Antonio Lopez, Tony Viramontes… it really saddens me that there was a crowd of people that vanished.” Very much in the present, but mindful of the past, Archie (Manuel) Alled-Martinez seems set for a future of his own making.