Red or Dead and HemingwayDesign co-founder and original designer, Wayne Hemingway MBE is chasing new ways to improve the things that matter in life
What happens when you hear the name Wayne Hemingway? Are you instantly transported back to the world of the Blitz kids, Acid House and Thatcher’s Britain? Do images of designer Doc Martens, subverted corporate logos, and the Bros watch-topped shoes fill your mind? We had the pleasure of catching up with Wayne about what he’s been up to recently.
Having started from humble beginnings selling second hand clothes on a market stall in Camden Market with his then girlfriend Gerardine, the pair went on to create the fashion industry’s first affordable designer label, Red or Dead. Eventually they exceeded all their expectations, winning the Designer of the Year awards and catching the eyes of famous fashion stylists, clubbers, and fashion industry pros. Even Australian songstress Kylie Minogue wore Red or Dead on the front cover of Smash Hits in 1988 and erstwhile pop icons Bros wore their watch shoes everywhere. Red or Dead had become as big as Alexander McQueen, but more affordable and with more emphasis on street style.
The brand Red or Dead was sold in 1999 giving the Hemingways (by then married and bringing up four children) the necessary resources and time to take on exciting new ventures. HemingwayDesign was established and began to focus on varied aspects of design from small products and artworks up to large-scale housing projects. The design team feels passionately that regeneration provides an obvious social benefit and have worked on urban transformation programmes all over the country. When asked about their design influences Wayne explains what motivates him and his team: ‘We are driven by societal need, everything that we do has got to have a social, people-focused purpose behind it... All of us at HemingwayDesign are driven to design for the common good. We wouldn’t design a private home for somebody rich. We would only design affordable housing and don’t subscribe to the oft elitist stance of many large designer brands’.
As we chat to Wayne, it’s apparent that HemingwayDesign would not be where it is without him and his wife’s combined efforts and Wayne states that ‘everything we did, we did together’. Wayne met Gerardine in Lancashire when he spotted her wearing an eye-catching homemade outfit. Gerardine always made her own clothes and it turned out the pair were both obsessed with dancing at nightspots like the legendary Wigan Casino.
Even at this young age Wayne had had an interest in clothes, as both his Mother and Grandmother were seamstresses and sometimes made clothes and outfits for him. A telling pair of photos shows a very young Wayne dressed as a cowboy and an ersatz Tarzan. Wayne was promenaded around his birthtown of Morecambe by his proud Nan, and as he grew older his Mum did not mind if he went off to rock concerts around the country. Wayne notched up his first Bowie gig aged 11 and then the Sex Pistols in 1976 at the start of the punk movement. It was shortly after that, Gerardine and Wayne headed to London to do more dancing and watching bands. A type of thrifty homemade approach defined punk fashion and this influenced the Hemingways later when they setup shop.
I asked Wayne what he thought of the ‘fast fashion’ of today, something which is in stark contrast to where he came from. Are people falling out of love with this sort of approach to clothing I ask? Wayne says: ‘For certain. Growth in the feeling that second-hand clothing is a badge of honour, and not going shopping for shopping’s sake, is a significant element of the downturn of the High Street. In wearing secondhand, upcycling, making our own clothes, we were a tiny minority for most of our lives, but all of a sudden it’s seen as the right thing to do’. Wayne relates this shift away from fast fashion with an example, ‘at a dinner party you now get more caché from saying you’ve put a decent outfit together from jumble sales or charity shops than you would from saying that you wear D & G or something. There’s no doubt that’s a major societal shift’. Again he proves his point with an example - this time a ‘Boutique by Shelter’ shop they designed the interiors for at the new Coal Drops Yard retail district in Kings Cross. Charity shops are undoubtedly major players on London’s high streets these days.
Wayne doesn’t like the idea that consumers would purchase something and dispose of it quickly, and in his opinion slow fashion is better for the pocket. He makes the point that ‘most people do crave newness in how they dress, it’s part of being a human being, but it’s far more fun doing it creatively than letting some unimaginative businessman who owns some boring chain doing unethical practice produce that for you. That wouldn’t make sense to me.’
One of HemingwayDesign’s events coming up next month is the Classic Car Boot Sale, a weekend micro-festival of sustainable shopping giving people a chance to make money from trading clothes, upcycling and selling street food. Wayne states ‘if we are in a position to do that, then that's the kind of thing we should do’, again showing his genuine commitment to creating events that have social benefits. Other events from HemingwayDesign taking place this year are Vintage by the Sea, The Festival of Thrift, The National Festival of Making and First Light Festival in Lowestoft, which will be worth a visit.
Just as we start to wrap up the interview, I squeeze in one final question, ‘What is your definition of exceptional design?’ He tells me that if it looks at an issue that needs addressing, like, making transport accessible, providing affordable housing, or enabling growth for all sectors of society in deprived areas then in his mind it’s good design. As he says ‘if you move things along to another level and if it makes people happy, then that's good design’. I love Wayne’s egalitarian view of the world and I applaud how the lessons in thrift he learned from his Grandma still apply today in his quest for sustainable design solutions.
Written by Julia Nelson and Matt Fletcher
Photographs courtesy of Wayne Hemingway MBE
www.hemingwaydesign.co.uk
The Classic Car Boot Sale, 27 & 28 April 2019, King's Cross
