Caitlin Yates is the designer making clothes for an attitude, not a gender
This is A HOT MINUTE WITH, a quick-fire interview series championing all the rising talent catapulting into fashion, art and music’s fickle stratosphere. From pinch-me moments to bad dates and even worse chat-up lines, think of it as an overindulgent conversation – like the ones you have in sticky club toilets at 4.A.M. Except these guests don’t regret the overshare…
Courtesy of @C8Y8S
NAME CAITLIN YATES
AGE 23
LOCATION London, England
PARTY TRICK My arms bend the wrong way.
LIFE MANTRA Live, Laugh, Love xo
“I know my boy,” says designer Caitlin Yates over the phone from her echoey make-shift storage room-cum-studio. The designer, who has gained justifiable notability as a ‘one-to-watch’ in the fashion world over recent months, is spending her day preparing for upcoming collections. Amongst the shuffling and movement in the background, she talks about the certainty and confidence she puts into her work these days. “I know my style. I know my aesthetic and how I work,” she says. “I just want people to question stuff and question why our everyday is like this. Why are we following these weird rules that have been put in place?”
The 23-year-old designer is philosophical to say the least. But not so much eating grapes on a chaise longue and relaying musings to a scribe, think more hungover in bed, scrolling through social media and questioning the world around her. One of Yates’ recent collections was centred around real and wonderfully coarse images taken from Google Maps - an idea that was dreamt up whilst hungover and digging deep into the internet. “A lot of my research comes from scatty concepts. I’m not exactly one to go and refer to really old paintings. A lot of my stuff comes from memes or things I see on the internet. Facebook groups as well… I’m somehow in so many facebook groups. I’m in one that’s called ‘Aldi Mums’ and there’s so much drama the whole time. I love it.”
The emerging designer finds inspiration from the honest aspects of the world in real-time; her Google Maps collection was testament to that. But her commitment to telling things how they are and exposing the true nature of our societies is what drives her dedication to informing her audience through bringing morality and politics into her work. “My grad collection is a lot about the area I grew up in and I look at the male structure within that. I try to bring that into a modern context whilst still taking the piss and making it fashion,” she says. For the designer, her hometown can be summed up by David Beckham, Soho Farmhouse, and one of the highest child poverty rates in the country - something that she is desperate to draw attention to. “If I talk to anyone and say I’m from the Cotswolds, there’s this immediate thing of ‘you must be minted. You must have gone to private school.’ It’s just not true. I always like to make sure my projects has some form of charity based work within it. I’m hoping to work with a local charity and maybe do a capsule collection or something… It’s being able to use your platform for good.”
Although a desire for change and a responsibility to raise awareness is the essence of what Caitlin Yates is trying to promote, she has also spent the years since her foundation course cementing her brand and vision, which, in turn, is affirming her rightful place in the fashion landscape. “I always think my stuff is not directed towards a gender, but towards an attitude. The confidence - someone who just stomps through the street. Someone who struts and doesn’t give a fuck about what anyone thinks about them.” The designer carries one of the most important outlooks a creative must have for abiding longevity. Simply, she makes the clothes that she wants to wear herself. Not only is she providing a completely original twist on print, capitalising on a gap in the market for ostensibly funny yet poignant designs, but Yates does it all with her own standards and authenticity firmly in her mind.
Ry Gavin: How would you describe your designs in three words?
Caitlin Yates: Scatty, Raw and Powerful.
RG: What are you trying to expose with your Google Maps surveillance work?
CY: It’s thinking about who’s watching you at what point of time. In today’s society with living in such a digital era, whose databases are you on and what could you be doing? Who’s watching you? An interesting concept to focus on during lockdown too - it’s the need for escapism to different cultures through digital screens whilst we can’t go anywhere.
RG: What should we do with the Royals? A) Dismantle the whole institution. B) Keep them around long enough so they continue to show who they really are.
CY: As BIMINI BON BOULASH says, “you all look so sexy tonight, you make me want to dismantle the patriarchy.”
RG: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve found when searching Google street view?
CY: There’s actually some really weird scenes in Russia where in several different locations there’s four people dressed head to toe in coloured outfits without their faces showing and they just appear in weird locations, it’s actually pretty creepy. Like some disturbing version of the teletubbies.
RG: What is your vision for the C8Y8S brand?
CY: Keep going, keep evolving, keep bringing awareness to causes that I care about and telling stories to the world. I want to keep creating clothes for men that question the rules and regulations of typical menswear, using textiles and print to push those boundaries.
RG: How does sustainability come into your work?
CY: I think it’s about being clever with sustainability and always making sure it’s a topic constantly in the back of your head whilst designing. Being conscious of it 24/7, and making swaps where you can to help the planet!
RG: Name one thing you would like to see changed about the fashion world.
CY: Unpaid internships, allowing kids from all stages of wealth to be allowed into fashion, less gatekeeping, more allowance to varying economical backgrounds.
RG: Who would you love to wear your clothes?
CY: The Cheeky Girls.
RG: Name one thing you do that you think is embarrassing… We promise not to tell anyone.
CY: Play me any Katy Perry song and I will know every single lyric.
RG: What gives you the “ick”?
CY: People that talk softly.
RG: What was the best thing you overheard at art school?
CY: Realistically it’s just a lot of gossiping.
RG: How has your creative process changed over the past year?
CY: Adapting to working in a small storage room has taken a while to get used to, but as designers we adapt anyway. Being a lot more digital than usual has actually been a real plus for me, I’ve been able to really focus on improving my own digital work and I can really see a huge improvement.
RG: Who’s the one person you want to see play live after lockdown?
CY: CHARLI XCX.