AFTER 40 YEARS.. DESIGNER ON BEING AN OUTSIDER
unsponsored. The past few years have certainly thrown up additional challenges for the designer, whose post-punk label has inspired dozens of her peers over the years. She had her first collection in 1985 and ran her own shop Hyper Hyper in London, making clothes for Paula Yates, Blondie, The Cult and Marie Helvin. She dabbled in music herself but always returned to fashion, going on to create for the likes of singers Kylie Minogue, Cheryl Cole, Rhianna and Ki l ls star Al ison Mosshart. She even designed the Brit award statues in 2016. Four years ago, she had pneumonia as result of lying on a cold studio floor grabbing power naps during preparations for a show. She has scarring on her lungs, evidenced by an occasional cough. Not that it will stop her working. Pam said: “The passion keeps me going. I’ve been l iving on about three hours sleep for the past four months.” Just l ike Margaret Thatcher? “Don’t compare me to that, as a good Glaswegian would say,” is her retort. “Sometimes you just have to put in the graft and that is everything.”
Pam won’t let that, or her undisclosed age hold her back.
“I don’t care about age,” she said. “I can relate to young and old. I don’t have any barriers in any way. My last boyfriend was 15 years younger than me. He’s 6ft 6in and gorgeous. People would say, ‘ You look amazing together’.
“Maybe some people thought, ‘ Your mum looks really nice today’, but it didn’t matter to us.”
Hogg has been criticised for not declaring herself a feminist. But she explains her refusal is down to her aversion to labels on anything apart from clothing.
She said: “I’ve never said I’m a feminist. I’m me. I think it’s tricky at the moment with all this labelling. I understand it.
“Women have had a hard time for far too long. Feminists have asked me why I won’t say I’m a feminist. But they can see I so clearly am, so that’s why I don’t need to be labelled one.”
She is also worried about the barriers being built within the LGBTI community as it grapples with issues around gender identity. For her it’s “PC going wrong”. She said: “My best friend is a transvestite. I call him ‘ him’ but he dresses as a woman. Even within the gay community they are fighting within their own groups.
“I do understand the dilemma