How up-cycling designer Matthew Needham turns rags into riches
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 @matthewneedhamstudio
NAME MATTHEW NEEDHAM
AGE 27
LOCATION London, England
STAR SIGN Virgo
BIGGEST PET PEEVE Loud eaters.
Have you ever known someone so dedicated to their craft that they are willing to cry almost every day for three months straight to see if they could make a crystal out of their own tears? If your answer is no, I guess you’ve never met Matthew Needham. The CENTRAL SAINT MARTINS alum was up-cycling way before it was cool. He has an obsession with old items and the stories they hold – so much so that a lot of his free time is spent watching items being restored on YouTube. So when Sarah Mower offered him dead-stock material from their storage facility, as well as a pair of her own shoes as a donation for his MA collection, he excitedly incorporated them. They sat alongside a ship’s sail, suitcase wires, and a random piece of wood that “felt special” when he found it abandoned outside CSM.
Matthew’s collection, titled Øyeblikk which means ‘in the blink of an eye’, was inspired by the beauty of Norway as well as the period in his life where he regularly visited the country to see an ex-boyfriend. “I’d never seen mountains or sea that looked like that, and it just changed everything,” he said. “This was about mentally going back to that period and understanding how I grew from that as a person.” Everything used in the collection has a purpose. Items aren’t just used for the sake of convenience, rather pieces like suitcase wires and sleeping bags were purposefully up-cycled into garments because of the collection’s focus on travel. It is this attention and dedication that sets Matthew, and his collaborators (HELEN KIRKUM, the footwear up-cyclist, Jo Miller, the milliner, and Alice Potts, the bio scientist and material innovator) in a league of their own.
Sophie Winfield: In three words, describe what is most important to you throughout your creative process.
Matthew Needham: Concept is really important to me. Spontaneity, because I could be finding items for the collection up to the last days before the show, and value. But not the materialistic value of an item, I mean the emotion behind it.
SW: What’s been the biggest pinch-me moment so far in your career?
MN: I dressed Emma Watson for the Pirelli Calendar, that was cool. IB KAMARA styled it, and asked me to make a dress for her, and I remember it being the photo that was in every newspaper. It was crazy! I went out to buy them all!
SW: Margiela Tabi boot – yay or nay?
MN: Yay.
SW: You’ve said before that up-cycling came naturally to you because of your obsession with old things and items that have a history. What’s one item that you own that you will keep forever and why?
MN: This utility style Dickie’s jacket, I’ll keep it forever. How I got it is actually a funny story… I got it from a vintage shop in Paris when I lived there, but it got stolen in a club. Then my ex-boyfriend bought me the same one because apparently it wasn’t vintage and it was actually cheaper to buy new. So this is the new one.
SW: Describe your lockdown 3.0 experience in three words.
MN: I’ve been optimistic, rejuvenated and eager.
SW: What’s been your go-to lockdown outfit?
MN: A long-sleeved t-shirt - one of those body warmer sports layer things – under a t-shirt, with black trousers. And Birkenstocks! Always with socks.
SW: Have you planned the outfit you’ll wear on your first night out post-lockdown?
MN: I’m not thinking that far ahead.
SW: Tell us about your worst date.
MN: So, we went for a coffee, and he got some text message on his phone, like an emergency text message. He jumped on the Boris bike in front of me and just cycled off. I was stranded in the street like, am I that bad?
SW: What’s the worst fashion trend you’ve partaken in?
MN: Vests and ties. That whole Avril Lavigne thing… My tie had a black and white stripe - you know, you’d wear it loose round your neck with a white vest? That was me.
SW: Did you wear it to the school disco?
MN: I did! It was great.
SW: If you had to pick one item that you’ve created to wear for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
MN: It has to be the Helen Kirkum X Matthew Needham toe trainers. It has to be.
Credit: Paolo Roversi
SW: What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?
MN: I really like watching knife restoration videos on YouTube. Does that make me come off as really weird? Basically, these old dads buy really old knives and restore them. I really like watching people restore things on YouTube, like if someone buys an old chair or something like that, it’s really cool to watch.
SW: Do you have any party tricks?
MN: I make a great vegan lasagne.
SW: You’re at a club and you’ve been told you can pick one song for the DJ to play. What do you pick?
MN: Start of the night: Why (feat. Nomi Ruiz) by Honey Dijon. End of the night: One of Us by ABBA.
SW: What is the best and worst purchase you’ve ever made?
MN: I’m a proper dad, the best thing I’ve ever bought is my waterproof roll-top backpack. I take it with me everywhere (you never know what you need to carry home). That’s really boring, isn’t it? The worst thing is definitely a lot of crap skincare I bought that never worked.
SW: Tell us something you absolutely hate, but don’t tell us why.
MN: Salt and vinegar crisps.
SW: What’s next for you and your brand?
MN: It’s about foundations at the moment, rebuilding those foundations. The next step is the next six months - coping with the pandemic and understanding the next steps that need to be put in place. Then I want to start properly selling, which was always the goal, but at the moment it’s just made-to-order so it’s really niche. I want to start teaching again and do more workshops too. The community aspect of my work is really important, so I want to be able to get back into that.
SW: If Covid were to end tomorrow, what’s the first thing you’ll do?
MN: Oh my fucking god. I mean, we’d all go on holiday, wouldn’t we? I’d go to Prague – my grandparents live there – so I’d go there. Or maybe I’d just throw a party? I’m not really a partier but I would go partying. Or I’d hug a stranger! Just go round hugging people!