Clancy Sinding Dawson

Clancy Sinding Dawson's 'The Vulgar is Tremendous Fun' graduate collection for GSA.

This collection goes so far as to be almost anti-erotic, in protest against the ‘sex sells’ ethic endemic in advertising and in the fashion industry. An attraction to vulgarity led me to my two main muses for this collection: Richard E. Grant’s character ‘Withnail’ in the film Withnail and I, and Rik Mayall’s character ‘Richie’ in the TV series Bottom. The behaviour of these two anarchic characters is wildly entertaining and curiously liberating for the viewer, but most importantly, they behave with shameless authenticity. Both Withnail and Richie reject society’s expectations of a ‘young gentleman’s’ behaviour and instead act with a complete lack of integrity. This has inspired the nonchalant aesthetic of my six looks. Drawing inspiration from archetypal feminine silhouettes, once favoured by rock legends Rod Stewart, Brian Jones and Mick Jagger in the 1970s, the purpose of this collection is to challenge our notions of beauty, masculinity and ‘manliness’, in the hopes of transforming our expectations of gender and sex roles for a more inclusive society. After all, as British milliner Stephen Jones says: “The vulgar is tremendous fun”. Clancy Dawson