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‘The designer creating "the biggest furore" since John Galliano'
Where would Gareth Pugh be without helium? This young British designer's calling card is inflated jackets that he presents on a catwalk as air-filled cushions. Enormous balloons set the mood, and during his performance-like shows it is not unusual for his models' faces to be masked as inflatables. Is it surprising that the media have embraced this designer en masse and have dubbed him the new John Galliano?
There's no shadow of a doubt that Pugh's favourite material is rubber. He transforms this elastic material into graphic patchwork patterns - sometimes harlequin-like - and architectural forms: practicality doesn't even get a look-in.
The eccentricity of the outfits invariably prompts comparisons with the zany get-ups of the legendary British cult figure, the late Leigh Bowery, who liked to wiggle his way into top-to-toe rubber costumes.
Pugh graduated from the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London in 2003. He was an assistant to Rick Owens at the luxury French furrier Revillon.
In 2004, Pugh's sculptural ‘inflatable creatable' was the centrepiece of a Dazed & Confused exhibition that also included work by Stella McCartney and Hussein Chalayan.