text by Adam Lehrer
UK-based fashion designer Claire Barrow has always married art and fashion in a way that feels proper. While most fashion labels re-interpret graphics by their favorite artists, Barrow has used her garments as a vehicle for her own images.
Born in Stockton-On-Tees, UK, Barrow found herself seduced by the sounds and imagery emanating from her local record shop as a teenager. While her classmates listened to Top 40 and wore their school uniforms, Barrow listened to bands on the atonal side of the rock spectrum (from Slayer to Sonic Youth) and found her own style by deconstructing and adding flair to her own school uniform. โI would wear all these โ80s earrings. I would put patches on. I cut my tie,โ says Barrow. โGetting into music, I just preferred metal and punk. I was finding my own records and being fully immersed in it. Music became my entire life.โ
Barrow moved to London in 2008 to study fashion. Even though she already was making pictures, fashion seemed a more realistic career than being an artist. โThere was a fashion course at my college, so I did fashion.โ
From the beginning of her practice in fashion, Barrow illustrated on the garments she created. Those images, steeped in iconography of radicalism and sub-cultures, have made her one of the most exciting designers on the London Fashion Week ticket since she debuted her collection at Fashion East for Spring/Summer 2013.
But Barrow is a tireless creative and it was only a matter of time before she would grow interested in seeing her imagery take life on canvas. The exhibit โClaire Barrow: The Bed, The Bath, and The Beyondโ that was on view at Londonโs M. Goldstein Gallery from April 17 to 24 found Barrow rendering the most private aspects of daily life, from taking a shower to using the restroom, and examining the ways in which we renew and revitalize ourselves in lack of spirituality and religion.
Claire Barrow and I spoke over Skype to discuss the exhibit, but also what it means to maintain a fashion brand in this exhausting system, why she is re-evaluating her place in this system, and her hopes of uniting a whole world of creative mediums under the Claire Barrow brand.
ADAM LEHRER: So many of your garments can stand alone as artworks. Were you interested in being an artist before you became a fashion designer?
CLAIRE BARROW: No. I wanted to be a fashion designer. Fashion seemed more realistic than being an artist. I wanted to be trained in how to make garments.
LEHRER: Does the interest in fashion come from creating something with an application? You can wear clothes and engage with garments in a way that you canโt with art.
BARROW: I donโt think I thought about the bigger picture. Iโve always illustrated the clothes Iโve made. Iโve enjoyed it. But now is the first time Iโve ever done canvases, which is really fun.
LEHRER: Iโm sure. How does it feel in comparison?
BARROW: I think itโs a lot more confrontational. When someone wears clothes, they can hide. Namely, it changes for each viewer and wearer. I present models with their hair and makeup done. Thereโs a whole [aura] around it. People take what they want from fashion and use it in different ways. Plus, people need to wear clothes. With art, theyโre just looking at that one thing. People canโt really interact with it. They canโt interrupt it in any way. Itโs different.
LEHRER: Does it feel more vulnerable to have your images hanging on a wall than it does when making clothes?
BARROW: It feels equal. Itโs hard to make clothes because you have to worry about everything โ the fit, money, time. I donโt know the art industry quite yet, but it feels like you always have to prove yourself in the fashion world. There are so many people trying to do it. With the art, I donโt feel as much of that. That might be because Iโm in an interesting position, having my own gallery show now. It might be different for me.
LEHRER: Everyone always talks about this connection between fashion and art. Usually, itโs just a brand taking an artist they like and turning their work into prints. Whereas, I feel like your garment work has been a vehicle for art. Do you agree with that?
BARROW: Yeah, I think so. I want to be taken seriously as an artist. Each garment is a whole presentation with its own concept. The concept that I just did was the โretrospective,โ which was taking references from every era from history rather than one. Each garment made up the bigger picture.
LEHRER: I know you are friends with Reba Maybury (editor of outsider art and body mod mag Sang Bleu). I follow all your friendsโ Instagram accounts. Your fashion brand is tied to these more subversive projects. Do you feel like a part of a loosely affiliated collective?
BARROW: Yeah, maybe. I feel like itโs coming to the surface now. Thereโs always been a strong group. Weโre also just hanging out together, doing whatever. So thatโs good. I actually want to come to New York.
LEHRER: To live or to visit?
BARROW: To live for a bit, I donโt know. Maybe three months.
LEHRER: People associate New York with being the most commercial in terms of fashion. At the same time, we have these really extreme brands โ Ekhaus Latta, Moses Gauntlett Cheng. Thereโs this whole new thing going on that might fit in with what youโre doing.
BARROW: I think Iโll come and hang out with some of those guys. London feels a little stale at the moment. But that could be me right now.
LEHRER: People always talk shit about the city they live in.
BARROW: I feel like people donโt like London anymore. Itโs so expensive. Thereโs less opportunity for young people. Itโs harder because we have to pay huge student fees now. Weโve got really shit government at the moment.
LEHRER: Weโre in a similar boat.
BARROW: No, because Bernie will win.
LEHRER: I hope so. Also, about the show, I want to talk to you about what your idea was around the โcleansing aspectโ of the shower.
BARROW: I feel, personally, that I donโt hold onto anything sacred. I donโt have many beliefs. The only one I kind of have is self-preservation. I worry about social situations. Itโs this social thing, rather than religion. I donโt have that much faith. But itโs not pessimistic. The characters in it are quite cute, and I wanted it to feel quite cute. Itโs quite commercial, like cartoons in an advert or something like that.
LEHRER: So youโre not religious or spiritual at all?
BARROW: No. But I hate saying that. It makes me feel really sad and guilty. My parents made me go to church every day until I was 12. Some kids saw me going to church and started picking on me about it. It was weird.
LEHRER: So the shower is cleansing yourself of all the bullshit around you?
BARROW: Itโs cleansing yourself of yourself and getting reborn every day.
LEHRER: You said your first reference was the anxiety of modern British life. Where do you think that anxiety is rooted?
BARROW: Social. People worry about being accepted, being normal, and fitting into a certain social scene. That seems like the main concern for young people right now, rather than worrying about whatโs going to happen to them after they die. Now, we know everything, so itโs all about worrying about yourself.
LEHRER: Thatโs interesting. Now that we know that weโre going to be dead, all we worry about is who we are when weโre alive, who thinks weโre cool. Running a fashion brand and putting an exhibition together at the same time is a ton of work. Where do you think that work ethic comes from?
BARROW: I know how hard it is to do the two and continue making something good. I work as hard as possible. I donโt take it for granted. I havenโt had a family that has gotten me into places. I came from the north and Iโve tried to make it on my own.
LEHRER: I just read an interview you did with Eloise Parry in Heroine Magazine. You two talk about bonding over a Slayer patch. It got me thinking about your work. Aside from a few designers, when brands reference underground subculture, itโs always the same stuff. A Peter Saville graphic here, a Bowie reference there. You seem to really know music and subculture. Do you ever feel at odds with your interests and what most high fashion is trying to express?
BARROW: I think if you know about subculture, you know what people are not going to like and what you should use. One should respect that genre and subculture. People will be like, โPunk fashion: thatโs what Iโm trying to do,โ and it doesnโt look punk anymore. But thatโs a good thing! Thatโs real punk, rather than going for something that looks like โpunk.โ Thatโs real subculture.
LEHRER: When you look at Chris Brown wearing a studded leather jacket, you think, 'how punk could a studded leather jacket actually be?'
BARROW: But thatโs the thing. โ70s punk fashion isnโt punk anymore. Being punk now is being creative and new. Itโs trying to push boundaries.
LEHRER: Do you think the Internet is collapsing subculture, combining and spreading it out? Do you think itโs a good thing that the focus is more on the individual? Like, someone can go online and find out about every type of music and decide what they like.
BARROW: I think so, yeah. I think itโs hard to create and be a part of a subculture now. Itโs all nostalgia. Thereโs no music subculture now that has come from completely nothing, maybe Trap. Itโs all about the individual. I think itโs a shame not to be an individual in this world.
LEHRER: You seem like someone who likes to fill up her head with different culture. Have you always been like that?
BARROW: Yeah, ever since I was 14. I was very quiet. My parents only liked popular culture and chart music. I started dressing quite strange at school. I would wear weird things with my uniform to dress it up a bit.
LEHRER: What were the first metal and punk bands you liked?
BARROW: I used to really like Carcass, when I was like 16. That was quite strange. One of them is from where Iโm from. I liked New York Dolls. I liked Black Flag. I liked Sonic Youth. All the classic ones, I think.
LEHRER: To me, it seems like the name Claire Barrow could be associated with a wide scope of creativity. It couldnโt just be a fashion brand. It could be art. I know you said you want to do performance. Would you ever see your end game as the name Claire Barrow being associated with a whole dearth of culture and creativity?
BARROW: Yeah, thatโs what Iโm going towards now. Iโm actually skipping a collection. Thatโs going to be weird. Everyoneโs going to be mad, which is fine. Thatโs my life. I just want to do a bit of everything, honestly. And thatโs so scary. Itโs hard to make any money if you havenโt got a set job. But I want to go into different areas now.
LEHRER: The fashion calendar feels like itโs going to collapse anyways.
BARROW: I donโt know if it will. People say it, but how could it actually collapse?
LEHRER: I know. People keep buying clothes.
BARROW: Half the fashion industry consists of these really commercial brands that no oneโs heard of, but they have really rich customers. To rich people, thereโs no problem.
LEHRER: There are so many amazing designers coming out of different cities. Itโs a tragedy that we have this calendar that doesnโt seem conducive to new talent.
BARROW: The biggest problem is the new talent. How can you fund it? Letโs see what happens. Thatโs kind of why I want to take a break, to figure out that sort of thing. How could I do a couture thing where I only show a few pieces? Itโs kind of a way to get your power back.
LEHRER: Did you find that painting for art gave you more ideas for fashion?
BARROW: It's made me feel the opposite. Itโs given me more ideas for art.