Hamish Morrow (Q4228)
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Hamish Morrow is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Hamish Morrow |
Hamish Morrow is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
2005
creative director
There is an odd aspect to Hamish Morrow's determinedly modernistic approach that's quite hard to make out. For a start, he delivered the first half of his show with such a brutal assault of sound that it felt like an act of aggression toward his audience. The brain-piercing noise didn't match the visual, though: There was nothing too shocking in the black asymmetrically cut coats and jackets that turned to show a hole in the back. Nor did the rubber coat that came later seem particularly calculated to scandalize, though there was a fair bit of nudging and smirking in the ranks as it went by.What none of this conceptual posturing really covered up is the fact that Morrow's natural talent lies in designing quietly sophisticated pieces for an older woman, pieces like his padded, high-belted, subtly luxe duchesse satin jackets and the dress with a scarf-draped asymmetry at the neck (a theme that's surfacing elsewhere in London). He ended the show with a lot more "editorial" ideas about duvets, but what's the point of a down gown with a cutaway back? No one wants Morrow to stop being creative, yet he's passed beyond the stage of life when credibility comes from being edgy and angry. If he'd only get over that, he might understand that people actually value his simplest design gestures most—because nobody else is doing stuff like that.
13 February 2007
Hamish Morrow returned to the London runway this season after a break to rethink his business strategy. He's always been a modernist with a theoretical bent and an intense interest in how science and technology intersect with clothing design, and he explored these same concerns for spring.For starters, he named his show "Seam Allowance," a technical reference to the fabric left over when garments are sewn together. If that flew over the heads of most in his audience, call us frivolous—what really matters to a woman is how things end up looking. In practice, his exercise in asymmetry produced exaggerated flaps and panels of fabric free-floating over the surfaces of fluid satin or chunkier washed gabardine.Morrow also likes a bit of glitz, and in a nod to London's current Versace trend he added in the odd cardigan and skirt in sparkling crystal mesh, as well as pieces in bronze chain mail. But one of the main points of his techno-futurism—the water-repellent qualities of his charmeuse—remained invisible. The delicate fabric is treated with a form of nanotechnology that enables it to survive a downpour without a mark. However turned on Morrow is by that advance, it's a boy thing—like a fascination with what's under the hood of a car. Whether something looks slick and sexy are more pressing concerns for most women, and when Morrow cut a neat, puff-sleeved jacket or a killer pair of pants close to the body, his ideas gained traction.
21 September 2006
Hamish Morrow gets fired up by the beauty of industrial processes, by the fashion possibilities of non-fashion materials, and by the kaleidoscopic wonders that flash across our computer screens. His Spring collection was inspired by hi-tech yachting tackle, and featured a piece of digital performance art by the team of Warren du Preez and Nick Thornton Jones.What sets Morrow apart is his ability to translate all that up-to-the-minute experimentalism into sensuous, wearable clothing that respects couture values. The yachting hardware, like chunky ropes threaded through huge steel eyelets, literally anchored a collection that was otherwise light as a breeze—in both form and fabric. Sport jackets made out of transparent gold nylon cellophane fluttered like tissue. Electroplated nylon was cut into iridescent tailored jackets, in indescribably subtle shades of metallic chartreuse or peach, light enough to crumple into the palm of a hand. Other jackets came with solid fronts, and backs made of sheer sports-style mesh ruched onto a strip of patterned material that followed the spine.The whole collection, with its delicate colors, metallic effects, and rigorous geometry, turned out to have been made without a single stitch: Everything was pieced together via ultrasonic welding. That, of course, is a feat in itself, but here’s the best thing: For all its amazing modernity, the show never tipped over into one of those all-too-painful exercises in intellectual avant-gardism. Morrow is one fashion boffin who also loves to dress women.
22 September 2003
Hamish Morrow is the last of the conceptualists to have come out of London—or maybe anywhere. Of the same generation (and Central Saint Martins schooling) as Hussein Chalayan, Morrow approaches design as an academic restructuring exercise, taking on the challenge of assimilating scientific and sport technologies into clothing. His defining twist—and what makes him interesting—is that he also has a taste for gorgeous old-world ornamentation.Morrow said his thought process this season had been triggered by looking at the structure of parachutes used for dropping freight and by a pair of anti-G-force pants used in military aviation. No matter. What the audience grasped was what counts: his ability to make things like a great white satin-bound coat, skinny pants in rich gold silk jacquard, and narrow, inventively cut cashmere cord blazers. The two-inch-wide nylon tape used in parachute construction was incorporated in tailoring and interpreted as strips of ribbon running across a turtleneck. Layerings of mesh tanks and sweaters looked effortlessly cool over derivations of military pants.Morrow has a strong sense of color, meaning he’s one of the few who can mix purple, sage green, peach, metallics and even the season’s potentially heinous royal blue with aplomb. When he circled round to end where he began, showing looped-up parachute tape bunched into dresses and tops, he landed firmly in the zone of avant-garde experiment. But, though it may pain him to hear it, it’s his more straightforward, wearable pieces that save him from the dead end of ’90s art-house clothing.
16 February 2003
Hamish Morrow’s collection fulfilled all the promise of innovation and thrill that visitors to London hope for. In a concise and beautifully conceived show, he managed to combine a feeling for real sportswear, a sense of glamour, fantastic juxtapositions of color and—rarest of all—truly original cutting.The first outfit consisted of a jacket made of beige mackintosh fabric with raised inside-out seaming, its futuristic cut softened by an explosion of scallop-edged embroidered fabric at the front. He sustained that level of delight and surprise with glamorous pale bronze and purple satin dresses in loose, sporty cuts; interesting wrapped tailoring; and witty elements, like Lurex tank tops and neck pieces of huge, chunky crystal. One sparkling highlight was a heavily beaded T-shirt paired with lime-green running shorts.Morrow’s confident touch even managed to turn the subject of bright, shiny prints—often used ironically on the London runways—into something that looked like a chic, avant-garde proposition. Tempered by his cool tailoring, the foil-Jacquard bombers and tailored jackets came across as wholly desirable, a leap of imagination rather than the usual tongue-in-cheek ’80s reference.Up to now, Morrow’s experimental shows have been confined to the realm of theory. But this collection, he promises, will actually make it to the retail floor. Once there, it will go a long way toward restoring London’s reputation as a leader in real design intelligence.
13 September 2002
Was it the challenge of scaling the heights of a new fashion career that inspired Hamish Morrow? Shown in the depths of an underground car park, his 16-outfit collection, entitled "Safety, Security, Suspension," referenced climbing as a central theme. Harnesses studded with Swarovski crystal were clipped to pants, and real climbers' rope was lashed around skirts and torsos.Morrow's aesthetic is in the British intellectual mode, crossing the boundaries between traditional fabrics and hi-tech materials. His skill in experimental pattern engineering was evident in asymmetrical dresses and skirts layered over jersey body pieces, accessorized with bright Nike knee socks and flat sporty shoes. Rounded, enveloping jackets with curved seaming developed the idea of clothes to protect and cocoon the body, while Morrow's free-thinking approach to color juxtaposed conservative gray menswear fabrics, like Prince of Wales and melton, with neon yellow and magenta Gore-Tex. His finale was an outfit knitted entirely of nylon rope.After four seasons, Morrow has established support from other top-ranking industry talents like Eugene Souleiman, who dressed the girls' hair in textured off-center ponytails, and makeup artist Lucia Peroni, who dabbed splashes of bright paint on their faces and ears. But survival on the London scene is an extreme sport: So far, Hamish Morrow is inching upward without the safety net of financial backing.
18 February 2002
Hamish Morrow has officially arrived. Stepping into the London void left by Alexander McQueen and Hussein Chalayan, who will show in Paris this season, the South African-born Morrow staged a concise, all-white collection that was imaginative, rigorous and thoroughly convincing.The 33-year-old designer juxtaposed five fabrics in a performance that had girls walking, in white boxing boots, through a shallow vat of violet dye. Morrow worked high-tech Aertex and reflective nylon with Old World damask, organdy and voile, cutting some superb tailored jackets and romantic skirts that ended up trailing their asymmetric hemlines into the colored liquid. The spirit was that of a sporty, otherworldly warrior woman—an image crystallized by a girl in a massive shawl of shredded organdy and a pair of shorts, like some athletic archangel.For all the complex styling, which bound elastic webbing around torsos and slung glass-bead harnesses across garments, this collection had clarity beyond the usual grasp of experimental newcomers. (Morrow, who was a contemporary of Chalayan's at Central Saint Martins and studied menswear at London's Royal College of Art, honed his skills as a freelance designer at Byblos, under John Bartlett, and elsewhere.) This is a designer expressing his own independent vision, and it looks good.
18 September 2001
Amid the many off-schedule shows of London fashion week, newcomer Hamish Morrow's small but extremely powerful presentation decidedly stood out. "I wanted to explore how ideas in fashion are consumed and discarded at an alarming rate," says Morrow, who was recently appointed menswear designer for Fendi and who also consults for Louis Féraud. To get his point across, Morrow used flowers as a leitmotif for his collection, "since they are fragile and exquisite, and have such a short life span." Mind you, these were not your typical floral housedresses, which Morrow admittedly detests. Instead, canvas jackets were hand-painted by an artist friend and then embellished with black tulle appliqués that resembled a giant gothic carnation; form-fitting, sheer lace dresses were made out of four large panels cut like petals. "I like to start with an abstract idea and eventually end up with clothes," explains Morrow, who also studded a black tweed and olive green suit with "big, obnoxious crystal beads that cascade over the body."In contrast to the streetwise but often unpolished designs of other emerging designers, Morrow makes his point with meticulous attention to detail and couturelike workmanship instead of flashy gimmicks.
6 May 2001
Hamish Morrow has officially arrived. Stepping into the London void left by Alexander McQueen and Hussein Chalayan, who will show in Paris this season, the South African-born Morrow staged a concise, all-white collection that was imaginative, rigorous and thoroughly convincing.The 33-year-old designer juxtaposed five fabrics in a performance that had girls walking, in white boxing boots, through a shallow vat of violet dye. Morrow worked high-tech Aertex and reflective nylon with Old World damask, organdy and voile, cutting some superb tailored jackets and romantic skirts that ended up trailing their asymmetric hemlines into the colored liquid. The spirit was that of a sporty, otherworldly warrior woman—an image crystallized by a girl in a massive shawl of shredded organdy and a pair of shorts, like some athletic archangel.For all the complex styling, which bound elastic webbing around torsos and slung glass-bead harnesses across garments, this collection had clarity beyond the usual grasp of experimental newcomers. (Morrow, who was a contemporary of Chalayan's at Central Saint Martins and studied menswear at London's Royal College of Art, honed his skills as a freelance designer at Byblos, under John Bartlett, and elsewhere.) This is a designer expressing his own independent vision, and it looks good.
18 September 2001