Members -- 7 days ago
Words: Gentleman's Journal
As a world leader in menswear heritage and contemporary design, it’s little wonder London’s latest wonder boy and menswear designer Matthew Miller is dressing a whole new set of cool men about town.
What does your typical week involve?
To be perfectly honest it can be pretty random. It’s non-stop from wake up to finish really – there’s always someone waking up in the world wanting something somewhere. I may have to fly to Portugal or Italy for manufacturing meetings, or I may have a conference in Shanghai. The great thing about being a designer is the randomness of situations it generates. I’m constantly learning.
How do you feel your brand is changing as the industry evolves?
It’s changing seasonally. We’re the generation of designers that are more connected to our research, our consumer base, our raw materials and manufacturers. The Dutch concept of Total Football probably is an analysis that best describes our evolving roles – we are all publishers, we are all content generators, we are all manufacturers and we are all consumers.
Who in the industry inspires you?
I don’t really want to emulate anyone. I want to be me – that’s why I’m building a design business based on a design philosophy that I fundamentally believe in. The people in the industry I admire are very good at being themselves, so to try and emulate that would only make me a second-rate version of them. I can very easily be a first-rate me.
What are some pivotal turning points in your career?
Writing my very own design philosophy. I’ve been a huge fan of designers such as Dieter Rams since university – I have always admired their reasoning and ideas behind existence, beauty and functionality. When an individual once asked me what gave me the right to design clothes, I found myself completely agreeing with them. What does give me the right? What separates me from every other designer in a saturated market? Well, it’s my design philosophy. It took me a year to define it, and I think every season it moves a little bit more towards perfection.
The next one is getting my first stockist. After travelling to Paris with a suitcase full of duffle coats (the most beautiful duffle coat ever designed, in my opinion) and having people actually wanting to order them, I actually didn’t know what to do. It was a great position to be in, but terrifying as a designer just out of college.
And thirdly, being asked to be a visiting tutor and ambassador of the Royal College of Arts. They supported me so much over my two-year masters, and it’s an absolute honour to pay that back by investing my time in the next generation of design.
What are some regrets?
Far too many, but one thing that I did learn from all the mistakes I have ever made is that you learn far more from your mistakes than you do from your successes.
In what ways would you change your career?
I think I would like to go into product design. If you look at a lot of the interactive aspects of my work it has a real product design mentality to it.
What advice would you give your 18-year-old self?
Relax, it is all a process, it is about the journey as equally as the destination. Stop being so impulsive.
What are the key skills they need to keep progressing up the career ladder?
Different courses for different horses, but to innovate without alienating has to be the best piece of advice for all budding designers.
How do you see your career progressing?
I need to stabilise the business in terms of distribution and production. I have been aggressively growing my distribution base over the last 24 months, as this was the short-term strategy. Now the next 12 months’ strategy is to focus on my own online retail, to create a flagship destination store that allows people to interact with the brand on a platform that is completely based upon my communication and identity.
If you could work in another area of fashion, what would it be?
Marketing for sure! I’m becoming quite obsessed with marketing and the communication of design. As a small independent London designer, your resources are incredibly limited due to the rapid growth in the business. You have to be incredibly creative with your limited set of resources – it’s challenging.
By Cole Simmons
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