Last week, over a crackly transatlantic phone line, I chatted with London-based designer Shaun Samson about his stand-out first collection, growing up in California, working at Jeremy Scott, and what he dances to in the studio when no one's watching.
When I asked Shaun how big his team was, he pretty much laughed in my face. "You're speaking to it!" he said. While assistants and interns come in and out of his studio on London's Old Street (two doors down from the offices of Dazed and Confused), Shaun is essentially a team of one. What's more, this is the designer's graduate collection—his final project as a student in the prestigious MA program at London's Central St. Martins.
Which makes the amount of buzz he's generated over the last six months even more impressive. For his first collection, Shaun took a little-known technique called needle punch felting to whole new lengths. Seamlessly blending grungy plaids, subtle grey suiting, and Aran knits, Shaun's staggeringly cool pieces combine the baggy silhouettes of his native Californian street culture with the refined feel of heritage fabrics.
Shop all Shaun Samson here.
Alice Newell-Hanson: Hi, Shaun!
Shaun Samson: Hi. Are you English? We’ve swapped!
ANH: I know! Why did you decide to move to London from California?
SS: I studied manufacturing in California and I knew that if I continued at school it would have to be somewhere completely different. St. Martins in London was my first choice. I didn’t even think I would get in, but I went for it anyway. Now I've been here for eight years!
ANH: Where in California did you grow up?
SS: San Diego, born and raised. Then I moved to LA when I was 18.
ANH: And I read that you worked for Jeremy Scott there...
SS: When I was studying, I would go back to California for the summers and intern with Jeremy Scott in LA. And then my course had a gap year, so I spent the whole time at Jeremy Scott. It was really fun and really crazy. Jeremy’s studio is very close-knit, it’s a very small team but we’re all friends and we all love the work that Jeremy does, so it was a lot of hard work but the payoff was really satisfying.
ANH: What did you get out of it design-wise?
SS: I learned to ignore that kind of posh attitude that some higher-end labels can give off. Jeremy's stuff celebrates a different genre of fashion, like the cult kids and street kids who are into fashion but not necessarily into just street wear. Jeremy is a good mix—he has the cool European following but also the cool Japanese following. And he’s cool in LA.
ANH: A lot of your Fall/Winter collection seems to come from street wear also, with an oversized, baggy T-shirt silhouette.
SS: Yeah exactly, that’s the reference. But it's a lot of other things too: I looked at work wear also, and prison uniforms. I wanted to have a very minimal shape for the technique that I developed.
ANH: Was that street culture something you grew up with?
SS: Yeah, definitely. It was just something that was around me in California. I didn’t pay too much attention to it, it’s just what I know.
ANH: So you were wearing those clothes too?
SS: Yeah, it was definitely me! It's kind of everyone when they're growing up. Like how you wear adult-size clothes when you’re eleven. It makes you feel more mature and adult, and like you belong. Not that gangs were necessarily a big issue in my neighborhood—it wasn't a bad neighborhood—it was more just bored s
When I asked Shaun how big his team was, he pretty much laughed in my face. "You're speaking to it!" he said. While assistants and interns come in and out of his studio on London's Old Street (two doors down from the offices of Dazed and Confused), Shaun is essentially a team of one. What's more, this is the designer's graduate collection—his final project as a student in the prestigious MA program at London's Central St. Martins.
Which makes the amount of buzz he's generated over the last six months even more impressive. For his first collection, Shaun took a little-known technique called needle punch felting to whole new lengths. Seamlessly blending grungy plaids, subtle grey suiting, and Aran knits, Shaun's staggeringly cool pieces combine the baggy silhouettes of his native Californian street culture with the refined feel of heritage fabrics.
Shop all Shaun Samson here.
Alice Newell-Hanson: Hi, Shaun!
Shaun Samson: Hi. Are you English? We’ve swapped!
ANH: I know! Why did you decide to move to London from California?
SS: I studied manufacturing in California and I knew that if I continued at school it would have to be somewhere completely different. St. Martins in London was my first choice. I didn’t even think I would get in, but I went for it anyway. Now I've been here for eight years!
ANH: Where in California did you grow up?
SS: San Diego, born and raised. Then I moved to LA when I was 18.
ANH: And I read that you worked for Jeremy Scott there...
SS: When I was studying, I would go back to California for the summers and intern with Jeremy Scott in LA. And then my course had a gap year, so I spent the whole time at Jeremy Scott. It was really fun and really crazy. Jeremy’s studio is very close-knit, it’s a very small team but we’re all friends and we all love the work that Jeremy does, so it was a lot of hard work but the payoff was really satisfying.
ANH: What did you get out of it design-wise?
SS: I learned to ignore that kind of posh attitude that some higher-end labels can give off. Jeremy's stuff celebrates a different genre of fashion, like the cult kids and street kids who are into fashion but not necessarily into just street wear. Jeremy is a good mix—he has the cool European following but also the cool Japanese following. And he’s cool in LA.
ANH: A lot of your Fall/Winter collection seems to come from street wear also, with an oversized, baggy T-shirt silhouette.
SS: Yeah exactly, that’s the reference. But it's a lot of other things too: I looked at work wear also, and prison uniforms. I wanted to have a very minimal shape for the technique that I developed.
ANH: Was that street culture something you grew up with?
SS: Yeah, definitely. It was just something that was around me in California. I didn’t pay too much attention to it, it’s just what I know.
ANH: So you were wearing those clothes too?
SS: Yeah, it was definitely me! It's kind of everyone when they're growing up. Like how you wear adult-size clothes when you’re eleven. It makes you feel more mature and adult, and like you belong. Not that gangs were necessarily a big issue in my neighborhood—it wasn't a bad neighborhood—it was more just bored s