“We’re inspired by different things, and I think it’s combining that that forces us to create new outcomes”, Kai Ghattaura tells us about working with his partner Fin Forsyth on their joint SS27 show. Inside a warehouse in Bethnal Green the pair have erected a small cottage at the end of the runway into which children with wooden swords burst at the start of the show. There’s Kai’s familiar medievalism and juvenile humour, but also a new rural playfulness that Fin brings to the collection.
The looks are exactly the mishmash Kai says they’ll be. A model covered head to toe in purple glitter follows another model dressed in a military overcoat. Giant fidget spinners feature alongside afghani pants in South Asian-style patterns. Even the music is a mishmash: what begins as a distinctly medieval lyre tune quickly turns into a pumping electroclash track. Kai and Fin bring us a collection that is at once childishly innocent and hyper tapped-in. Interspersed with the odd, “Henry, this is falling off; can you sew it back on please?” Noctis catches up with the duo before their collaborative LFW show: GLISTER.
You’ve talked about how going out has influenced your work. Can you tell us more about that?
Kai: Yeah, my work used to be super technical, but then I took a step back from fashion and form in clothes, and just started going out and experiencing real life, and discovered what I want from my clothes. We used to go to illegal raves all around London, just in stuff you didn’t mind getting dirty in.
Fin: Yeah, we went to squats, a lot of squats.
Like internet raves?
Kai: Yeah, I love all that stuff, I grew up on that stuff. I mean, this show itself, instead of just my childhood, is based on both our childhoods. Mine was spent heavily online, but Fin’s was more out and about in real life.
Fin: My parents were super keen on getting me out of the house. I don’t know where this came from, but I was obsessed with mud pies. I’d come home from school and I’d put on my dirty clothes and go to my mum’s flower garden to make mud pies. She’d get very angry with me. But yeah, I was always in the woods, you know, just foraging and stuff.
Kai: Can’t relate. We were like the exact opposite.
Was it difficult to merge these two different perspectives?
Fin: We only did it because it came really naturally. We actually weren’t planning to do the show together. I mean, I’ve helped him with loads of stuff throughout the years. I think our vibes just got on so well that it didn’t really matter what we were making. It could have been completely different, the way we worked together and got ideas from each other. It just happened so easily.
Kai: We didn’t really butt heads. And in the end it doesn’t really matter, because it all gets put together in a mishmash in styling. You don’t have to think that much about it and where it’s gonna end up. Why not just have fun with the process? People often try way too hard to have an image of how things are gonna look, and you’ll only ever be upset by that. I don’t think we’re afraid of having stuff that maybe doesn’t work together.
Fin: I feel like that’s the beauty of it. It’s a story. And it doesn’t always have to go the way you think.
Can you tell me a bit about your process?
Kai: For this collection, we didn’t do any drawing whatsoever. At the very start we went out and picked up a bunch of scrap and deteriorated fabric. I would take stuff out of the trash, and we had a partnership with Traid where we take their discarded reject clothing.
Fin: I’d get stuff from charity shops a lot of the time. I was really inspired by the bric-a-brac section, and I’d get all kinds of things. Bedsheets, old crochet, throws. Like really gross prints, like stuff that’s on final sale at the charity shop and no one wants.
You’ve talked about how fashion shows don’t fully utilise spaces. What do you mean by that?
Kai: The format of the fashion show has just got so boring. It’s completely lost the purpose of what a show is supposed to be. It’s supposed to be like a door stepping into a world, but now every single show looks the same: you walk in, you get a plain white runway up and down, whatever. I mean why not have something that’s more interactive for the audience, rather than just being a spectator? I mean, who wants to get their phone out for five minutes, then fuck off? We want you to really feel like you’re taking a step into a world that already exists. We’ve lent out our hands and you can come see it for a few minutes. It’s like it’s already happening and you can just take a look if you want to.
Fin: I think that’s why we like squats so much. It’s like, we walk into this space and we’re like, what the fuck, where are we? It isn’t like a club or anything. The people are just so different.
How do you balance runway recognition with viral success?
Kai: Viral baiting is the easiest way to get PR these days. So many people are paying so much money to get their stuff out there or sent to famous people or whatever. Why even bother doing that? I mean it’s important you have some kind of product past that point, but you need a way to scoop people in somehow. And the way I do that is just making some bullshit.
Does that make it harder to break into the mainstream fashion industry?
Kai: It’s so dumb. It’s like this highbrow idea that referencing internet culture or memes is lowbrow…you’re lowbrow by not opening the doors wider.
What are your ambitions going forward?
Fin: It’s very much about going with the flow.
Kai: Yeah, it’s about having fun, because we don’t plan that far in the future. But I definitely want to have a long career in fashion.
