ALISTER MACKIE

When it comes time to do the inevitable Alister Mackie exhibition the first room should be a recreation of his teenage bedroom in Larbert. A room painted black, a dark cell on to which Mackie was projecting his future.

These days he is the creative director of Another Man magazine and a renowned stylist who consults for top brands. If you want to know who’s who and what’s what in menswear he’s your man. Back in the 1980s he was an indie kid with posters of The Smiths on his wall, reading the music press and dreaming of London. The boy he was remains the man he is. “What I do is still influenced by alternative cultures and the music scene,” he says.

Mackie has styled campaigns for Louis Vuitton, Prada, Christian Dior, Topman and many others. He uses the platform of Another Man to explore what he’s interested in. Alongside shoots from the likes of Nick Knight, Juergen Teller and Inez and Vinoodh, he wants to tell the story behind the fashion, to put “the clothing into context because the menswear story needs more context, I think. Ultimately the clothes do not change that much.”

Mackie studied at Glasgow School of Art before heading to London to do an MA at Central St Martins. When he started working on the magazine Dazed & Confused his interest in menswear began to catch the eye of designers.

He prepares for each issue of Another Man by creating a scrapbook of images that inspire him. He’ll look at movie posters, flyers, ephemera. And music, of course. “I start always with record covers.” The visuals feed into the magazine and his consultancy work.

He has seen the story of menswear come full circle. In the 1980s menswear was functional first and foremost. “I used to work in Ichi Ni San in Glasgow in 1989, 1990, and that was the peak of that designer clothes time where people would literally save up for six months for a Vivienne Westwood leather jacket and they would wear it every Saturday night.

“It was a status thing. Then in the 1990s things were the opposite of that, a bit more androgynous. Then we have this huge brand building which became a runaway train and now that’s derailed somewhat and everything’s fractured and new stuff’s happening.”

Ask him about the best new menswear designers and he namechecks Loverboy designer Charles Jeffrey and Spanish label Palomo. But he expects you’ve already heard of them. “It happens super quick now. There is no underground any more.”

Fade to black. (TJ)

PHOTOGRAPH: WILLY VANDERPERRE Stylist Alister Mackie draws heavily on pop culture ephemera