Gareth Pugh (born 31 August 1981) is an English fashion designer. He currently lives and works in London.
At 14, Pugh began working as a costume designer for the National Youth Theatre. He started his fashion education at City of sunderland college and finished his degree in Fashion Design at Central Saint Martins in 2003.
Pugh was selected to participate in British reality show The Fashion House two months after his graduation. a debut show at London club Kashpoint's Alternative Fashion Week brought Pugh to the attention of Fashion East "London's breeding ground for cutting-edge new talent," leading them to invite Pugh to participate in its Autumn 2005 group show. Pugh had only four weeks, with no studio, no assistants, and little money, to create the collection.[3] His collection ended up a critical success and attracted significant attention to his designs.
Pugh's solo premiere was in London's Fall 2006 fashion week; he has since showed his Spring 2007 and Autumn 2007 collections there. Pugh's shows have continued to draw critical praise. British Vogue, for instance, called his Spring 2007 collection "an incredible, unmissable show" and said that "his genius is undeniable."
Spring 2007
Unidentifiable models walked out onto a white cotton, cloud-like, runway. Faces and hands were covered in latex masks and gloves, with the bodies underneath wearing looks inspired by the 1985 sci-fi film "Legend" by Ridley Scott. Volume, structure, and geometrical patchwork ruled the runway. Black, white, and silver was used in everything from checkered prints to plastic sleeves filled with air to achieve volume. This show had everyone talking about London's new "enfant terrible" but also had critics questioning who'd wear these creations?
Fall 2008
After a relatively disappointing last runway show, Pugh came back with a bang. Supermodel Coco Rocha opened the show in warrior style hair and make up wearing a dress made out of zippers. Safety pin dresses would follow as well as looks using goat hair, flannel, and PVC. Pugh's signature exaggerated shapes, structure, and patchwork were back but in a much more high fashion way. With a typical palette of black, white and silver, the collection was described as "Wizard of Oz meets Predator" and was widely well received.
Fall 2009, Paris
Pugh really surprised his audience this time around. In their seats expecting a runway show, Pugh presented an 8 minute long film presentation of his collection. Tired of being constantly labeled as "sci-fi" he wanted to create a collection that was from "under the earth, not from a spaceship". The palette was black, grey, and hematite and the looks shown in the black and white film achieved elegance and movement, unlike his clothing ever had before. Pugh decided to present the collection in film because he wanted to be able to showcase the volume and fluidity of the garments in a way he deemed impossible to on the runway. The warrior woman of Spring '08 was gone, and instead of aggressive, his clothing seemed protective and feminine.
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