Hailing from Lymm, a village just outside Manchester, self-taught designer Sam Nowell is navigating the fashion world with homegrown, autobiographical honesty.
First known for his tongue-in-cheek repurposing of mundane items into clothing pieces, often working with salvaged fabrics and referencing themes that defined his upbringing in the northern English village. Nowell has now collaborated with the likes of Wimbledon, TATE and Depop. All alongside launching several collections including most recently, ‘FETE’ with Edie Owens, a love letter to village life.
Originally studying Architecture at the University of Liverpool, Sam grew weary of the unrewarding process and looked elsewhere, “I don’t have any formal education in Fashion, having taught myself how to sew on a friend’s sewing machine when I was in my first year at Liverpool. I was bored of drawing buildings that were never going to be built and needed something more gratifying. I ended up using this sketchbook we were given to draw clothes whilst in lectures and on the bus back to my halls. I’d go into charity shops or on eBay and find the most fabric I could for the cheapest price and then take it home and start cutting it up. That’s how it all started really. Then I wanted to be taken more seriously as a designer so started working within collections instead of one-off reworked bits. Here we are now.”
We caught up with the exciting designer to talk nostalgia, New Order and The North.
How would you describe yourself and your practice?
My work is a way for me to communicate themes that were present in my childhood, growing up in an anonymous northern village. It’s a love letter to a village life ideal, hopefully sitting somewhere between traditional folk costume and customs, and the contemporary customs that happen every day in the village. I’m always trying to be honest with what I produce. It comes from something I’ve lived or a reference I feel I can align myself with. I’m sure it sounds obvious but there’s a lot of things out there that lack sincerity or any kind of integrity.
Who do you have in mind when designing? Do you feel like you have a certain kind of customer?
I don’t necessarily have anybody in mind but myself when I design. It’s all very personal, autobiographical. I’m very grateful that it’s been able to resonate with as many people as it has. I’d like to think the people who buy and support my work can relate to the themes and the graphics. It’s all very nostalgic and there’s references from a wide range of sources, from bits of popular culture to obscure rural motifs.
Do you remember when you were first exposed to Art or Music, in a meaningful way that resonated with you?
I can remember being sat in the back of my dad’s car and being mesmerized by his New Order CD’s. I used to get really bad motion sickness and remember just tracing the outline of the blue splodge of New Order’s ‘Best Of’ CD, I can still trace it now if I close my eyes. I think being that young and connecting these artworks to the sounds that were coming out of the car stereo really influenced me, later being obsessed with everything Peter Saville and Factory Records, to the point of having the logo tattooed on me.
You’ve worked with Wimbledon twice now, are there any other brands in particular you’d like to collaborate with or design for in the future?
Working with Wimbledon was really special. I’d love to do stuff with Umbro, I always have done. Barbour & Baracuta too. I’d love to do something with Cath Kidson, which probably sounds a bit bonkers, but come on.
How do you want people to feel when they are exposed to your work?
I want it to evoke northern English youth culture while neither romanticising it nor sneering at it. That’s as concise as I can get that answer I think.
Does music influence your work in any way? If so, how?
Oh massively. Lyrics will run round my head or be scribbled into my sketchbook. Sometimes they’ll be written onto shirts or serve as a basis for something I’m making, or be the soundtrack to a show or a campaign. Words, phrases and sayings always find their way into my work and I think work really well thematically in my practice of attempting to comment on northern or British rural life. Growing up listening to the likes of Kate Bush and Morrissey who are masters of using music as a medium for storytelling, I was obsessed with that, fascinated by that. I loved the idea of pulling from different mediums and working them into your own thing. Thinking about it now, it’s really the basis for my own work.
What’s been the main challenges of starting your own brand?
The main challenge was that first step. I always tell people that. The first time you have to show your ideas to your friends, then the internet. Its fucking daunting, it’s a very vulnerable thing to do. The references are obvious and the quality of what you’re putting out isn’t where you want it to be. But it’s so important to keep at it. I had really talented friends who were photographers and filmmakers and artists who could never make that first step, and never went on to be what they wanted.
That’s the single biggest challenge for anyone I think, the recognition and the money and the support will always come, but in that moment right at the start, you’re all by yourself.
How has growing up in and around Manchester influenced you and your work?
I think it’s a feeling of determination and drive that’s maybe not necessarily particular to Manchester, but more The North in general, and those frustrations from being in those anonymous surrounding areas that’s really spurred me on. It’s a constant chanting of the words “nothing will happen until you make it happen” that has always been there for me, and I think is a familiar feeling for Northern creatives, where the spotlight isn’t as bright as it is for those from London. I say that with no resentment, and reading it back I’m sure it looks that way, but please don’t mistake it for that.
How do you feel about the brothers reuniting? Get tickets?
Hahahaha I didn’t!. It’ll be a wild experience for anybody going, not sure it’ll be Knebworth, or maybe it will. Always love that quote from Liam about only playing two gigs at Knebworth saying how stupid it was, and that they should still be playing it now.
Who’s your favourite new band?
Splint. 100%. Manchester band with a really industrial sound that I can’t quite describe. There’s this real feeling of frustration from them, something I always love from a band’s sound.
What are you currently working on? And what can we expect to see from you in the near future?
I’m working on a couple of bits and bobs to close the year out. Nothing too nuts. Next year we’re working towards another show, there’s a few ideas bouncing around the studio – mainly screenshots from This Country.
Photographs courtesy of Robert Kiernander & Daniel De La Bastide
@samnowellstudios
The So Young x Sam Nowell collaboration t-shirt is out now. Available here.
