"I ALWAYS say that they call it your graduation show your 'final show' because it's the last show you'll ever do," joked Central Saint Martins-trained golden boy , speaking exclusively to VOGUE.COM. "It's so incredibly hard to get anywhere in this business.
That's why I feel uncomfortable answering questions about which other designers I admire; I take my hat off to anyone who can start a business from scratch and build it up and sustain it." Pugh's nightmarish fantasy creations - which include such iconic "characters" as Mr Tumnus (a half-naked horned model in luxurious fur trousers) and Big Poodle (which inspired a spontaneous round of applause when it took to the catwalk at Pugh's recent Fashion in Motion show at London's V A museum) mark him out as one of Britain's most promising design talents, but the Sunderland-born designer is philosophical about his success. "London is a hard place to live and work, but it's the only place I could be right now - it's all about those 'happy accidents' that propel you forward.
There's an element of being in the right place at the right time that's just luck, but when it comes down to it, you've got to bust your a**e to stay there." Admitting he initially used balloons to achieve the frightening proportions in his early creations, he says he now constructs the clothes to stand alone, wanting them to "speak for themselves" - out of his past five collections, the most recent is the only one that's sold. Why is he so drawn to the dark side of things in his designs?
"I don't know really," he admits. "It's just an aesthetic I find appealing. It's nice to give people a shock; to show people a different way of looking at things.
The 'scary' aspect of the designs is all in the styling - if I chose a different model or different music, for example, the collection would have an entirely different impact. It's easy alter the way things are viewed but once you take it all apart, a lot of my pieces are ultimately wearable." Pugh has recently been working on the launch of Sony's new range of coloured VAIO CR laptops, a commission for Kylie Minogue and, of course, his upcoming spring/summer 2008 show, for which he's received the British Fashion Council's New Generation sponsorship for an unprecedented fourth year in a row.
So what can we expect? "To be honest, I work kind of last minute so there's not that much to give away," he laughs. "But I can tell it's going to have a Michael Jackson-inspired element to it.
Love those sparkly gloves!" The designer is gearing up for a few sleepless nights. "In the run up to show time I regularly work through the night - which plays havoc with one's complexion, you know.
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