Designer Spotlight: Gareth Pugh
Gareth Pugh is a British fashion designer renowned for his fantastical and futuristic designs, an aesthetic unparalleled in the industry since perhaps the dark and dreamy era of McQueen’s. Born August 31st 1981, Pugh grew up in Sunderland in the United Kingdom and was an avid dancer as a child. The famed designer started his career in fashion, close to where his passions lay, at the youthful age of 14 when he began working as a costume designer for the English National Youth Theatre as part of the Wayne McGregor Company, the celebrated resident choreographic company at Sadler’s Wells, London.
Later he went on to study his craft, beginning his fashion studies at the City of Sunderland College and later completing his formal education at the prestigious Central Saint Martin's. Upon graduating in 2003, his final collection was selected for the cover of cult British magazine Dazed & Confused, something that catapulted him into a whole new realm of fame and popularity as a young budding designer.
In 2005, Pugh was asked to design for Kylie Minogue’s Showgirls tour, a project from which came the opportunity to design for Lady Gaga, Roisin Murphy, Beyonce and Rihanna on their world tours. His earlier life as a dancer has continued to have a thread throughout his career in fashion, seeing him design costumes for Alea Sands at the Paris Opera Ballet and Eliogabalo at the Paris Opéra.
His creative tendencies do not stop at dressing the worlds most elite stars and fashionistas though; his love of film has seem him collaborate with director Ruth Hogben and creative genius Nick Knight on fashion films, one of which, A Beautiful Darkness examines our internal dispute between chaos and control alongside the journey we take through the fluctuating states of sanity. His work holds an immense profoundness and he consistently seeks to wow through his search for the dark, unapologetic depths of creativity that aren’t always perfectly placed or wonderfully beautiful.
He opened his first boutique in Hong Kong in 2010 and is stocked in major international boutiques and department stores such as Opening Ceremony, SAKS Fifth Avenue, Barneys and Bergdorf Goodman in New York, Selfridges and Dover Street Market in London, Colette in Paris, IT and Joyce in Hong Kong and Side by Side in Japan. His work has been featured in all the top fashion publications including W, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and LOVE.
Pugh lives and works in London where he currently shows at London Fashion Week and has an ongoing collaboration with choreographer Wayne McGregor.