Designer Matthew David Andrews Is Bringing Fantasy Back To Fashion

WORDS Callie Foulsham
IMAGES Courtesy of Matthew David Andrews

Described as a fervent force in the world of fashion, dedicated to the art of design, 22-year-old Matthew David Andrews from Essex is definitely one to watch. Following in the footsteps of countless successful alumni from renowned fashion college Central Saint Martins, Andrews is currently in his placement year before finishing his final year of studying BA Womenswear. With an eclectic client base that already includes Cara Delevigne, Angela Bassett and RuPaul’s Drag Race UK stars, Bimini, Awhora and Krystal Versace, Andrews has also received outstanding recognition from LVMH for his dedication and commitment to environmentally friendly design practices. 

Tomorrow, Monday 26th February, at The Crypt Gallery in King’s Cross, Andrews will be showcasing his long-awaited AW24 debut mini collection, including 14 looks made up of AI-generated and digital prints on translucent and jersey fabrics, to depict the illusion of digital rendering and “video game” graphics coming to life. As someone who has been working alongside Matthew throughout his process of making this collection, I wanted to take this opportunity to understand his vision. 

The collection explores how AI and technology are taking over, and how it is subsequently becoming more difficult to determine what is and isn’t real. Using this as the starting point, his goal is to communicate his perception of the world through his garments, challenging and blurring the line of what looks real before we attempt to look deeper – beyond the pixels. 

I caught up with Matthew just before the show to dig deeper into the process behind his game-changing garments and what we can expect from him in the future. 

Hello Matthew, it’s so great to catch up with you. First of all, congratulations on your debut show, you must be so excited. 

I’m so excited, I can’t believe this day has come! I’m a nervous wreck. 

In terms of what inspires you, from the get go, what would you say made you want to practice fashion design in the first place? 

I’d say I was quite late to the game when it came to me wanting to pursue fashion. I was more focused on fine art and drama during my A Levels but I got sick and tired of these subjects and found that turning to fashion was the perfect merge of both – drawing when it came to designing looks, and the theatrical side of drama, which I loved. Growing up, I had a keen interest in fashion and was a big fan of dressing up… I always stood out from the other children. 

How have you been finding your placement year? Have you found that it has been beneficial to you having taken a year out of studying BA Womenswear at CSM? 

So far, my placement year has been a good experience but also quite a humbling one. I have been really lucky in terms of landing a few amazing interviews with some really big brands but unfortunately, it didn’t work out for me in terms of landing any of the roles that I went for and I found this hard to deal with. 

Alongside the constant pressure from social media – especially Instagram, which is also a place where people in this industry rarely shows its downfalls – it’s been hard not to compare myself to other people in the field. The struggle throughout my placement year is the reason that I have created this latest collection for LFW. I have had this whole year to improve, and teach myself what it takes to make a full collection independently, with my own money, under my own name. 

The struggle throughout my placement year is the reason that I have created this latest collection for LFW. I have had this whole year to improve, and teach myself what it takes to make a full collection independently, with my own money, under my own name.

Matthew David Andrews

Have you discovered any challenges throughout your time in the fashion industry that have made it difficult for you to progress? 

I’d say apart from the organisation of this show and the challenges that have come with it, as it is so much work for me as an independent designer, I’d also say that my process of applying to study at CSM was very challenging.

The first time I applied, I got rejected and I found it difficult because I had worked so hard and knew that I wanted to study there, but I just had to take a step back and look at the positives. Having a positive outlook on this has helped me in applying again the following year and I got in. I know it sounds cheesy but I would always say to anyone to just chase your dreams because I genuinely believe that if you really want something in life, you can achieve it. 

In terms of your most recent collection, what would you say inspired you to create this collection and what do you hope to gain from its long-awaited debut? 

This collection is inspired by society at the moment, warping a digital reality through the use of AI, something that is really popular at the moment when it comes to creating imagery. I wanted this collection to cause people to question how far is AI capable of going in terms of deceiving people of what is reality and what isn’t. Pushing boundaries and using tangeble, real materials 

to create “fake-looking” garments that people can question. I want people to look at this collection and ask themselves, what am I looking at? I also formulated this collection in two halves, representing both the “game” through digitally inspired, bright and colourful clashing prints inspired by the Nintendo Wii game “Just Dance”, and the “gamers” using darker materials of a gothic aesthetic to reminisce the early 2010’s, MySpace “scene kid” era. 

How do you most like to present your work? 

I wanted to present this collection in real life so that the collection was interactive, just like a game. I also thought that it was just really important to showcase these “AI-generated” designers in an in-person setting to add to the illusion of bringing these digital creations to reality. 

The venue is also stunning, how did you decide to present this show at The Crypt Gallery? 

The Crypt Gallery is a tunnel under a church so I thought that it would be perfect for a gothic inspired show. It has a very raw feeling to it, quite minimal with exposed brick work and barely any lighting so I thought that this would be cool to create a juxtaposition with the brighter garments in the collection, and having a blank canvas to play with lighting and set design to enhance the show overall. I also think that presenting this in the Crypt Gallery compliments the scene kid, emo half of the collection, adding to the disheveled looks and presenting them in an environment that fits with the aesthetic. 

Can you describe your design process for this collection? 

I have a weird process. For me, sketchbooks don’t work and I find it much easier to conceptualize my ideas through creating digital collages on Photoshop. This allows me to visually create aesthetics quickly, and understand how the pieces that I want to make would look, digitally trying them on. I also think that it is important to reevaluate what it means to be a designer, and to encourage people to design in new ways as not everyone who wants to be a designer has to know how to draw. 

What techniques were central to you when it came to your unique design process, especially for garments from this particular collection? 

What was really unique about this collection is that we used AI Generation to create the prints from scratch so that the designs were personal to me. I imported these designs into Photoshop to rearrange and alter how they looked. Some of the AI-generated designs that I have created include cable knits and other textile techniques that from a distance, could be mistaken as actual textured garments rather than prints on jersey and translucent (voile) fabrics. 

What was really unique about this collection is that we used AI Generation to create the prints from scratch so that the designs were personal to me.

Matthew David Andrews

Are there any dream clients you would love to see wearing your designs, and if so, who? 

I’ve already dressed Cara Delevigne and that was a big achievement of mine so I would love to dress her again for sure. If I had to pick someone new it would definitely be Lady Gaga. I’m also really interested in dressing people for red carpets and events so if anyone ever wants to wear one of my designs, hit me up.

In terms of development, how would you like to see your work progress in the future? 

This is such a hard question because you just don’t know what the next trends will be, but personally I just want to get to a place where I feel satisfied with what I am creating, and for my physical work to merge with the ideas in my head successfully. I think the position that I am in right now is the closest I have ever been to executing the ideas that I have in a physical form, but for the future I would like for my brand to progress even more, tastefully but with a more refined, Matthew David Andrews edge. 

How do you feel about the current state of the fashion industry and what do you think it will involve 5 years from now? Is there anything that you would want to change? 

Everyone has so much to say on sustainability and I believe that we can, obviously, do so much more to ensure sustainable practices within fashion, but it’s hard to be sustainable all of the time in an industry that doesn’t have sustainable values at its core. Currently, there are slow changes being made in areas of the fashion industry to try and be more sustainable but it’s definitely more of a marathon than a sprint in order to input these changes into years of unsustainable fashion practices. It’s so important for all designers to do their bit to ensure that changes are made. 

In terms of the “Matthew David Andrew” brand, how do you feel that it contributes to those changes that you would love to see within the fashion industry? 

I would like to bring back the fantasy in fashion. People take fashion so seriously now and it is becoming so sterile and repetitive when it is meant to be fun and exciting! For me, I want my fashion to be inspirational, and have the power to take people out of the world that they live in. I want it to be an escapism, and for people to look at it as a symbol of hope and happiness. In this golden age of fashion, I think it is important to look back at the fashion we have already witnessed and bring back the magic that this industry has lost.

Get tickets to Matthew’s debut AW24 mini-collection runway show on Monday 26th Feburary from Eventbrite.

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