CULTURE

Christopher Nemeth The House of Beauty and Culture. John Moore. Buffalo. Post Sacks. Japan. Deconstruction. Recycling Words Andy Thomas Photographs Mattias Pettersson

Christopher Nemeth was a true hugely infl uential. Mixing the DIY Suzanne Bartsch and Martin Margiela English original whose work resonates innovation of punk with classic English scouring the store for inspiration. as loudly today as in the mid-1980s, tailoring, Nemeth created a body of In June 1986, Nemeth met his when his deconstructive aesthetic fi rst work that was both raw and beautiful. future wife Keiko at a John Galliano made waves. Talking to i-D magazine It was through the House of Beauty show and later that year moved to in 2009, a year before his passing, he and Culture that Nemeth built his Tokyo, where they set up their fi rst explained the roots of his craft. “I had reputation for pioneering design and shop, Sector. With the help of Keiko, this pair of trousers that I’d picked up craftsmanship. Set up by cult shoe Nemeth continued to develop his craft, in a jumble sale, which I really liked designer John Moore in an old building creating a huge archive of designs and the shape of, but after wearing them off Kingsland Road in east London, the a cult following across Japan. His vision endlessly they had completely worn out. store was home to a collective of like- continues to be realised today thanks to So I took them to bits, laid them fl at, minded free thinkers. The collaborative the tireless work of Keiko, and a Tokyo and made my own new version of them. environment and creative freedom store that has become a mecca for That was how I made my fi rst pair of resulted in brilliantly crafted and highly Nemeth fans worldwide. We hope we trousers – as a way of getting back those original clothes that worked perfectly go some way to capturing his infl uence trousers that I loved but had worn out.” together – a pair of dropped crotch and inspiration through these Graduating from Camberwell trousers from Nemeth above Moore’s recollections from those touched College of Arts in 1982, the toe-strap boot; a Nemeth post sack by his humble genius. > Birmingham-born designer began jacket set off by Judy Blame’s salvage experimenting with textiles, creating jewellery. The collective reached beyond art from old clothing. His innovative the cultish pages of i-D and Blitz Christopher Nemeth, 4-13-5, Jingumae, use of salvage materials and artful magazines, with international buyers Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, 150-0001, Japan deconstructions of fabrics would prove and designers such as New York’s christophernemeth.co

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Harris Elliott “My dad hated the image of fashion. “I used to do some work for John Moore “When I wear his pieces He just put his art on wearable things. at the House of Beauty and Culture. That today, people are always “I first met Chris around 1985-86 when like ‘Where is that from?’ So fashion was a way for him to present I was staying in Camden, through people was my connection to Nemeth. There That’s across the board his art.” I was hanging out with like Judy Blame were a lot of waves that came out of that whether it’s fashion or non- Lui Nemeth, Christopher’s daughter and Neneh Cherry. His clothing was just place. What Nemeth did was to extend fashion people, they will and co-founder of Primitive London absolutely unique and I felt it was like he the DIY ethic that had come from punk always comment on the into a whole new area of fashion.” pieces because the cut is so primitivelondon.co.uk had designed it just for me.” Howie B, musician and producer John Marchant, director of Isis Gallery different. He crafted his own “I learned loads from my dad as an artist, silhouette, whereas a lot of howieb.com isisgallery.org other designs are rehashes but maybe the most important thing was of styles from yesteryear.” that he didn’t like to have something that “He had this collection made from “I was the Saturday girl at House of he hadn’t made. He just wanted to have discarded post sacks. It was fantastic, just Beauty and Culture when it first started. Jacket, 2007; jeans, 1998. everything that was his. He made clothes, genius. Mark Lebon did a shoot for i-D The shop wasn’t open every day. Back furniture, even notebooks; that is magazine using Buffalo models and Judy then Dalston was like a no man’s land something I really respect as an artist – Blame styled it. Then Chris, Judy and but the one day the shop was open was to be surrounded by your creative objects. Mark became good mates and got Saturday. It was totally a cult shop. You’d I think that creates your self, your space involved in the House of Beauty and have people who were on the edge who and world.” Culture. And I just remember the arrival had made this brave trip to come and Riyo Nemeth, Christopher’s daughter of this genius new designer. I guess it was visit the shop.” and artist riyonemeth.com around the time when we were beginning Scarlett Cannon to become aware of recycling and the “When he left art school he had no importance of waste. So I particularly “What was going on with Chris and the money and he couldn’t afford canvas. He loved the fact that he was making pieces House of Beauty and Culture was just was a practical sort of guy, so the old style out of postbags and that they really looked different. It was very edgy – we used to post sacks, they are basically like a duck great too. His designs were just amazing.” call it recycling, so he was very much canvas. He’d stretch them and paint Mitzi Lorenz into this reclaiming kind of thing.” on them. But he made his own clothes Jazzie B, DJ, producer and founder too. He’d get a suit from Oxfam and of Soul II Soul soul2soul.co.uk take it apart and lay it flat to see how it was made. That’s how he learned to “I was buying Chris’s stuff along with pattern cut.” ‘HE WAS THE shoes from John Moore. Both of Adam Howe, stylist SWEETEST them had a really good hand and the webberrepresents.com stuff worked really well together. Handmade shoes and handmade clothing “He was just a fucking genius. When GUY YOU’D that were totally unique; it was not I saw his clothes I was blown away. I gimmicky but just full of style. They was impressed and gutted that it wasn’t EVER WANT had the same attitude, taking something me that found him. That was the most that was essentially British: really exciting thing in those days, you know, TO MEET’ good craftsmanship.” finding the latest clothes and the latest Howie B designer. And he was the man.” “He was stretching any kind of fabric you Mitzi Lorenz, member of the Buffalo could paint on, the thicker the better, like “I had started doing stuff at Blitz collective a canvas. And when his clothing took magazine around 1982-83, and basically off he started cutting his paintings up. I started to use my friends in the “I became aware of Chris through Judy At his graduation show he’d actually cut magazine. About 60 per cent of the stuff Blame, who I had known for years. It his paintings up to make clothes. It was in the magazine came from charity shops must have been about 1985. And I amazing. He’d gone from cutting clothes and then people like John Moore, Judy remember Chris had started working up to make canvases to cutting canvas up Blame or Chris were making things with him and was all excited, and he and to make clothing. I was just mesmerised.” especially for a shoot.” Mark Lebon were doing stuff together. Adam Howe Iain R Webb, fashion journalist and Judy loaned me a jacket to wear to Japan fashion director of Blitz magazine on a modelling trip I was doing at the “I first met Chris in the mid-1980s hopeandglitter.wordpress.com end of ’85. It was one of his post sack and he was just this incredibly humble, jackets but it had a gold leather collar – sweet, quiet, funny man. He was an “At the time, we were all just doing it was fabulous.” absolute gentleman; the sweetest guy what we wanted to do. His work was Scarlett Cannon, healer, model and you’d ever want to meet. And he just very much in that feeling and spirit.” writer heavenlyhealer.blogspot.co.uk had his own complete style. It was, like, Scarlett Cannon > ‘Wow, look at him.’” Barry Kamen, member of the Buffalo collective, artist and stylist barrykamen.com 93 Adam Howe Jacket, 1986; “As with Westwood’s stuff, people would CULTURE | Christopher Nemeth belt, 2000; do anything to acquire Nemeth clothes. handkerchief, 2003; badges. A pair of Nemeth jeans was the ultimate “All of us were creating an alternative to thing you could possibly have. So people “He was the person at the forefront of the mainstream. I didn’t want to be a would starve to get them, because they “It was incredibly raw with that patchwork deconstruction as a movement in the stylist on a big magazine, we wanted to were never cheap.” of fabrics, the undyed hessian and the 1980s and that obviously is a significant create our own thing. And I think that John Marchant sacking and stuff. He was using really thing. But that is only one very small part was really strong through their work and raw materials, but then those things of what he did. He was a master cutter, through Chris’s work especially.” “I met Chris through Nellee Hooper and juxtaposed with traditional men’s suiting self-taught; he was just an amazing Iain R Webb a lot of his style and everything just really and wools. A lot of those jackets were pattern cutter, which started from this connected with me.” like deconstruction with the insides out. very logical mind and great intelligence “All the people at the House of Beauty Jazzie B It was as if the innards of the garment he had.” and Culture, they were just really skilled were almost spewing out. It had that Claire Pringle, co-founder of Pokit “He has his own theory. He always said artisans. That is something I felt had raw energy.” pokit.co.uk > been missed a bit since the days of Arts to us, ‘Original, original, original.’” Iain R Webb and Crafts. John Moore was like an old Lui Nemeth school cobbler. He’d make handmade “I really remember my dad’s studio next shoes, and Chris was an incredible tailor. Claire Pringle All the stuff was made to a really high door to the shop and the house where we Jacket, 2003; trousers, 2006. standard. So it wasn’t just a punk grew up. It was a big studio with a really Septimus aesthetic, where it was safety-pinned high ceiling. I always remember the smell T-shirt, 2005. together, it was really well made.” of the studio, the cigarettes, dust, fabric Bayode Oduwole Adam Howe and paper. I also just remember it being Jeans, 2003. really messy and it had two tiny birds flying around everywhere. He always used to come home with bird shit on him and ‘HE WAS AN all over the patterns.” AMAZING Riyo Nemeth “I used to hang out with him in the studio PATTERN all the time. He was obsessive, he would literally sleep there. Keiko would CUTTER; HE complain because he wouldn’t come home. He would get under the table and sleep HAD A VERY there and then wake up and start again. He would do this week in, week out.” LOGICAL MIND’ Howie B “That whole world wasn’t really meant “It sounds more professional than it was, for mass consumption. It was meant for “Craftsmanship is a good point. He was a the idea of them forming a collective. people who got it. And that was quite “I had an amazing collaboration piece – really good maker. If he needed clothes, Because at that time, most of the stuff a small amount of people. If you saw a Nemeth and Judy Blame coat. It was he’d make them. If he needed a table he’d that went on was quite organic in the way Chris’s clothes around in clubs and so almost 1920s, hitched up at the back, make it. He’d always figure out a way. He that things just happened. It was like- on then you knew you were amongst your made out of old velvet curtains and was totally practical. He was self-taught to minded souls coming together. It was own crowd. The same with Bodymap hessian, and hundreds of buttons, tassels the extent that when he had his first big a response to what was around us, but clothes, for example. If you saw a print and rope. I wore it so much it was like a store in Tokyo, Keiko got these quite that raw aesthetic also reflected the in the far end of the street then you knew comfort blanket. The feeling of that – to expensive shop fitters in to kit it out. And environment and life we were leading.” there was somebody else that was into put that on was just so special. You could Chris was like, ‘That’s all wrong’, he didn’t Iain R Webb the same thing as you.” just pop it on with something casual or like it so he ripped it all out and remade it.” John Marchant with something dressy and it just felt and Adam Howe “My older sister had some Nemeth stuff looked amazing.” and she lived near the House of Beauty “Stevie Stewart and I, as designers, wanted Scarlett Cannon “It was craftsmanship and design. And of and Culture. It was something I was to make a difference; we tried to create course recycling, which we loved. I’d aware of from old copies of The Face and and invent in a modern way, taking “I’ve got two beautiful jackets that are the always loved Judy Blame’s work and it i-D magazines. I would also see people inspiration from the world around us. It post sack ones. I think they are some of was like a clothing extension of that but it like Nellee Hooper wearing it. And I just was a time of change; designers, musicians, the first things he ever made. The thing I had its own thing going on. Nothing like loved that Hard Times look but also the filmmakers and choreographers were have that is really spectacular is Scarlett that had been seen before. Designer way it was timeless.” inspiring each other in a modern Cannon’s old coat. It’s really amazing clothes were very fitted and couture. I Kim Jones, artistic director, Louis revolution. Christopher Nemeth and because it almost feels like a Paul Poiret, always think the same about Bodymap Bodymap were a leading force in this Vuitton menswear louisvuitton.co.uk that’s how beautiful it is. It’s so heavy. I as well, the way they were making things creative revolution.” have it in a box because I don’t want it to out of Lycra. People weren’t making David Holah, designer and co-founder get ruined. It’s just an object that I things out of old post sacks. So it was the of Bodymap davidholah.com absolutely love.” use of materials, the way it was put Kim Jones together, the shaping, the tailoring and really the whole work was just fabulous.” Scarlett Cannon 94 “The stuff was just so shapely and the CULTURE | Christopher Nemeth materials were always so beautifully “Punk had set the whole tone, everyone “I guess from a romantic point of view, it layered. There was just something very was ripping stuff up and turning it upside always had that sort of Fagin vibe. I just eccentric, very British about it. There down and inside out. But then it was the really liked that kind of Dickensian thing.” was also a punk thing. You could wear way Chris pieced it together, the quality Jazzie B it anywhere – to pick up the rubbish of the workmanship. And of course he or to a ball.” started off as an artist rather than a “You can see the lineage and the Jazzie B clothes maker, so he would make these progression. It’s one view but through a amazing jackets and then frame them and kaleidoscope of different techniques. It’s “I guess that was the thing – he was punk. put them on the wall. It wasn’t just about almost Dickensian but also very modern. All of his ethics were punk. That’s why wearing it, so it becomes something else. It’s a work with soul so deep. So time we all loved it. It was timeless. It’s like Every bit of detail on Chris’s clothes was doesn’t really matter.” that post sack jacket – I would wear it considered like a painting.” Bayode Oduwole, co-founder of Pokit today as much as I would when he first Barry Kamen came on the scene.” pokit.co.uk Mitzi Lorenz “Punk was very much about creating “In Buffalo we used him a lot. He fitted things from things around you and perfectly in that. What Chris did was “He literally went around London at a usually stuff that people had thrown very English as well because he was certain time of the day and took the post away. I think that aesthetic then fed taking bespoke and tailoring and sacks off the street and turned them into through to the Blitz club and that culture Englishness and flipping it on its head.” his material. I had a jacket and a pair of that started with the New Romantics. Barry Kamen trousers and they had the original hooks The House of Beauty and Culture – on, he’d left all the bits on it so there was even though it was quite desolate, very “It’s really amazing that here his work no disguise at all. That was what was so urban and gritty and reflected the decay is treated as art work rather than clothes, special about Chris. That was punk.” of what was around us – was still quite with galleries such as the V&A and Howie B a romantic ideal.” the ICA.” Iain R Webb Lui Nemeth

Norbert Schoerner Socks and rug, year unknown. “I always saw Chris as an artist who was very much into the purity of fashion design – the craft aspect and tailoring and how to reshape the body. All the discussions we’ve had over the years were much more about the idea of craft and how to somehow also make that central to your creative being. He was only interested in the practice itself.” Norbert Schoerner, photographer and filmmaker clmus.com “I came to London initially to study fashion. But the idea of fashion that I had in mind, looking at my dad and how he does it, felt Barry Kamen Jacket, 1980s; jeans, shoes and socks, 2003; T-shirt, year unknown. Scarlett Cannon Jacket and trousers, 2013. Norbert Schoerner Judy Blame, jewellery designer Waistcoat and shirt, year unknown; trousers, 1980s; shoes and socks, 2003. Mitzi Lorenz Shirt and Socks; rug. a completely different thing when I went apron, 2003; shoes, year unknown. to the foundation course at Saint Martins. So I thought, ‘I want to do art first.’” “While he was very matter of fact about Lui Nemeth things, he was also a very, very bright “There was no compromise. I’ve been “There was a certain cut of his three- man. And he applied that intelligence to with him when he’s been walking around quarter-length jeans with that over- “It’s scientific and rational but at the same his work and that is what is so interesting. looking for material whether it’s here locked stitching, so it was a look that Whilst he maybe made things look easy, in London or Tokyo. He spent an awful time artistic. There is nothing like it. was easily identifiable as Chris. He has There are very few genuine original his cutting was so advanced and has been lot of time researching, even looking a silhouette that is very unique and copied by so many different designers.” into history books and finding out concepts. Chris had the talent do that. identifiable as him. There are very few For me, Chris represents the essence of Claire Pringle materials. There was a lot of effort stylists that have something you can say and research even before he started what English fashion and London style is is clearly them.” about. There are so many lenses you can “He had such a big impact on designers making the things. His attention to Harris Elliott, stylist, art director and like Comme des Garçons and Martin detail was just outrageous.” look at it through, from the gentleman to founder of H by Harris the ragamuffin.” harriselliott.com Margiela and they were really taking his Howie B Bayode Oduwole stuff and remaking it. And then obviously “He was mashing up and twisting jeans other designers would look at them and “I even wear his badges on non-Chris 25 years ago. And now the cut of Chris’s “My dad was wrapping his body with duct take from them and then the high street pieces and friends can tell right away and jeans has really inspired loads of people would finally take from these other say, ‘Oh, you’re wearing a bit of Chris.’ tape and making it flat. He always without them even realising. I think he worked with a flat surface; he never used designers. So nobody quite realises the So because of his mark-making on his had a big impact on denim.” source of so much of the way things have badges, even if they are really simple, they draping. I think that is because he has a Barry Kamen love of painting and a love of canvas.” been broken down and turned inside out are identifiable as Chris statement pieces.” Lui Nemeth comes from Chris.” Harris Elliott > Barry Kamen 96 97 CULTURE | Christopher Nemeth “I’ve got a few pieces of his. It was actually a bit of a joke between us because his “There was also the Hungarian furniture “He seemed quite shy and quiet but designs are very much for skinny people and books that were an inspiration. Our the clothes said it all. They were just and I have quite a solid build. So he granddad is Hungarian. Dad had this like nothing you had seen and what always sort of joked of making a special book of furniture and used the patterns everyone wanted.” square edition for me. He actually made to make wallpaper for the shop.” Mitzi Lorenz a jacket for me that I still wear.” Riyo Nemeth Norbert Schoerner “He had an aesthetic but he didn’t try and “It was totally intuitive, auto-didactic, and define that and box it, and to put it into “It went hand in hand with what we were completely devoid of all the pomp you something he could cleverly market. He doing at the time. The shapes were just get in fashion. To be that fulfilled and to was always incredibly modest, he never phenomenal. And obviously with be that genuinely independent; that to us wanted to be the personality designer.” dreadlocks and the tone of our skin it just [Pokit] is what fashion is about. It’s about Claire Pringle kind of worked. So we were always wearing doing things your own way without the something Nemeth in our videos. In 1990 trend forecast. That’s what Chris “My best memory of him was during an we literally wore all his stuff on tour.” represents to us.” i-D event in Florence. He helped hang the Jazzie B exhibition I organised during a very noisy one-night party in the Palazzo Corsini. “I’m not that well versed on the history He could hold his drink and more.” of clothing being used as art objects. But ‘HIS WORK Terry Jones, founder of i-D magazine there are a number of people who have i-donline.com done that sort of thing, going back to INFLUENCED Sonia Delaunay. And then there were “When we said we wanted to move to others who have deconstructed clothing EVERYONE east London from Tokyo, he moved with and turned it around, such as the Left us. He was scared and wanted to protect Bank Letterist movement. Nemeth’s FROM LEVI’S us. When we mentioned Kingsland Road clothes would absolutely be a connection he was like, ‘No, no.’ It took us three to that.” TO COMME years to convince him. We had to take John Marchant him to Broadway Market. And then he DES GARÇONS’ lived with us for three months. But he “We helped put his window display up in liked London after that.” menswear boutique Bazaar. We were Riyo Nemeth carrying one of his spaghetti paintings. Bayode Oduwole It was made out of a deconstructed jacket “When we first saw his designs we were “It’s so important to tell the proper Nemeth that he’d stretched out like a canvas and like, ‘Wow, there’s someone else on story beyond what happened in the 1980s. then thrown glue, paint and spaghetti on the same wavelength as us.’ And then Unfortunately, people only get a very it. We had no money, so we’d taken it all we got to know him and discovered he’d narrow slice of it because much of it is only the way on a bus to put in a Mayfair been doing if for over 20 years already. available in Japan. But to be cool in Japan window. It was like, ‘Is this how its meant When it came to clothing he used to say, for 25 years, that is the pinnacle of success. to be?’ It was all a very DIY aesthetic so to ‘Well, the body isn’t made up of tubes is They are very discerning. Whenever I am infiltrate Mayfair – it felt like subterfuge.” it? So why would you cut like that?’” in Tokyo in Nemeth, everyone goes to pay Adam Howe Claire Pringle homage. It is amazing that all these really big designers are genuinely humbled by “What came about seven years later of “In the beginning, he made a proper this man’s talent.” course in the early 1990s? Deconstruction. collection with Mark and Judy, but Bayode Oduwole But Chris was doing that in the middle he stopped doing that. He just made of the 1980s. That all owes a great deal to what he wanted to wear. He only wore “Every time my mum comes to London what he was doing for no other reason his clothes. I remember he hated his people always know the history. The than he wanted to do it. Back in those socks so he made some; or shoes or recent exhibitions at the V&A and ICA days you made things out of rubbish a portfolio case.” prove that and she was really happy about because you didn’t have any money.” Lui Nemeth that. She says people respect history more Scarlett Cannon here than in Japan, where they are more “He made everything. We went surfing interested in having the newest clothes. “He influenced everyone from Levi’s to once. A crazy idea; Chris Nemeth surfing. But I think there is something in both.” Comme des Garçons to the Antwerp Six. Kim Jones But he embraced everything. We drove Riyo Nemeth “What he really brings to my work is that Recently, I saw a student I teach and she down from London to Cornwall and the mix and match feel. And I love that Hard said everything I taught her class about day before he was like, ‘I haven’t got any “The Japanese just embraced him with a Times look and things that are very normal Nemeth and the House of Beauty and swimming trunks.’ The only fabric he had fanatical zeal. They totally went head-to- then becoming very luxurious. The beauty Culture all made total sense now. So even were post sacks. So he made a pair of post toe in Nemeth. The only person I knew was in the imperfection almost.” 20-year-old fashion students are getting sack swimming trunks. No elastic and who dressed like that was Chris, and that it.” Jacket, 1984. a big leather belt.” was because he didn’t buy any other clothes.” Adam Howe Adam Howe Adam Howe >

98 99 “For me it’s his staying power in terms of “There are maybe 200 patterns in his his hallmark. What he did was so unique. CULTURE | Christopher Nemeth archive. And they keep reproducing, using Fashion kind of teaches you that you different fabric. My mum buys off-cut always need to do something new to be “I worked with Judy Blame on a project fabrics from a tailor’s in Regent Street.” relevant, but if you have something that back in 2000 and it was him who told me Lui Nemeth strong, it’s about style and not fashion. about Chris. And then I went to Tokyo And I think that is where Chris’s and met Chris around 2005, having “In Japan, we’d always spend time at his influence lies. I would always want become a bit of a fan of his. I went to the studio and hang out with him. He’d always more people to be aware of him.” store, got on well with him – really lovely just get on with stuff, drawing something Harris Elliott guy. And now whenever I go to Tokyo I or cutting and sewing in mid-conversation. always pop to the store and see his wife He very much had his own rhythm.” “His legacy is very important. I collect it and buy a pair of jeans or shoes. It’s Norbert Schoerner and would like to give it to a museum or almost become something of a mecca something in the end so there is a proper when I go to Tokyo. There is kind of like “I still think he is really relevant today, in archive. They did a really amazing archive a cult for Chris over there.” the same way as that era of Buffalo is. in one of the Comme des Garçons stores Harris Elliott That whole aesthetic in the way people in Japan with all these pieces that were wear clothes and the way stylists and style just so incredible. The fabrications and “Japan is maybe more about buying the magazines create stuff today; Chris was the way he mixed and matched. And you style, but I don’t think they go as deep definitely part of the movement that would imagine it came from chaos, but as here. I feel people here look at the influenced that. So I think there are a lot when you went to his studio it was so history more and put it into the context of people who will be replicating his style immaculate and organised. Every pattern of that time.” and won’t even know that’s where their was in a box around the room and Lui Nemeth reference points are coming from.” everything was so perfect and orderly. Harris Elliott There was a real method to it that I “He had a big following in Japan. Also the thought was just so incredible.” craftsmanship, with people helping him Kim Jones make stuff – there was an attention to detail where he got his clothes made that ‘HE’D WORK “He used to just cut the patterns and throw he would never have had here. That whole them on the floor. There were piles of cottage industry stuff that was going on in WHILST pattern scraps and fabrics all over the floor. Japan in the 1980s and ’90s was really But when he moved, he suddenly got clean taking off and he was part of that.” CHATTING; and tidy. It was strange but he started Howie B making his portfolio with files and started HE HAD organising all his drawings and pictures. “Our parent’s shop is really unique. I think Not by dates but very ordered. I was talking it’s because everyone goes there to hang HIS OWN to my grandma, my dad’s mum, last week out. My mum brings out wine for friends and she was saying, ‘Don’t you think when and customers. They always kept things RHYTHM’ he got tidy it felt like he was archiving and small and beautiful.” getting ready to pass it down.’” Lui Nemeth Lui Nemeth “You look at it now and it still stands up. I “It’s not about being nostalgic because his think his legacy of course is just coming “Keiko [his wife] was 50 per cent of the work was so progressive. When we into the fore now with all this 1980s stuff brand; she just hasn’t put her face forward. discovered him around 1997, all that that is prevalent. So I think that is what They were always a team. While Chris deconstruction and recycled stuff was still will inspire and influence the young ones was about the designs, she was about the there. You could still see that lineage but – I hope. He was quite an unsung person fabrics and the one who actually put it was much leaner, much sharper. People here and I think it’s really important he’s them into a collection. Keiko was a buyer tend to focus on his older work, which is now being recognised.” when she first met Chris. She bought the utter genius; you look at the cuts and Scarlett Cannon first Galliano collection and took it to shapes today because Keiko [his wife] Tokyo. She’s got an amazing eye and she still uses all the patterns. It’s still fresh, “He was one of my all time favourite has always put the Nemeth collection but you also need to look at his designers and we had talked about doing together. Chris died tragically young contemporary stuff.” something together. And then sadly he but his brand is still as important and Bayode Oduwole died shortly after. He has that cult directional as it’s always been. As long as following in Japan and people like Rei she is there to curate the work, it will be “The point about his contemporary stuff Kawakubo [Comme des Garçons] still true to what it was.” is that he used to rework ideas obsessively. support his legacy. He’s an influence on Claire Pringle If he had an idea he wanted to get to, he so many people.” Jazzie B would rework and rework to hone down Kim Jones “He kept loads of drawings, books that he “When I am in Japan, I always that idea to a point he was happy with. made and paintings just for himself; not go to the shop. Sometimes And I’m not sure how many designers “It’s such a shame that Chris has died. intended to be seen. And I think that’s I say you don’t know the prophet until he’s gone.” actually put that much time into it.” Now the ICA show has put a lot of those really beautiful. It’s easy to misunderstand Claire Pringle things in their historical framework.” the point of making something. When he Shirt, trousers, shoes and John Marchant died, Riyo and I went into his studio and socks, 1988-2012. we saw thousands of works we’d never seen.” Lui Nemeth