Fashion Designer DrNOKI-NHS On His Sustainable Street Couture Collections – Forbes

Growing up in Aberdeen in the ’80s there was a big hit of American culture and contemporary brands. Team that with a love for sportswear and a penchant for acid house raves, and you get today’s product in the form of DrNOKI-NHS, the elusive (cue the mask) fashion designer-come-artist. 

Admittedly, he has an addiction to warping and weaving, and he’s the ultimate up-cycler (well ahead of the curve). He brings together materials like a collage, he customizes too for a mash-up (quite literally) of not only textiles but cultures, aesthetics, and outlooks. 

Felicity Carter: What was your first memory of fashion?

DrNOKI-NHS: The ’80s in Aberdeen in Scotland where I’m from was a cultural hub for street fashion. It was the epic center for oil production for Europe at the time with multiple oil fields being discovered in the North Sea. There was a huge amount of prosperity and American influence there – we Aberdonians were awash with the contemporary brands brought in for the new American families. The Aberdeen soccer casuals were a massive influence on me with my addiction to sportswear, but it was the tiny acid house rave scene that started in 3 clubs – first the Pelican Club, then the Bang Club, culminating in the Church of the Fever Club run by Jim and Kerry – ruled by style guru Willy Rosedale (RIP). I was only 14/15/16/ I had my 16th birthday in Fever.  It was my break away from my brother and cousins’ psychobilly punk scene in the venue club from the age of 13! It was my brother’s way of babysitting. I had a privileged street upbringing.

FC: How, when, why did you get into the industry?

DrNOKI-NHS: I like textiles and when they’re made into garments I feel comfortable wearing and have an emotional attachment to them – they are like a liberation armor from my vulnerable naked self. You could say I have an addiction to the warp and weave and I have a compulsion to knit it into my life’s evolution.

FC: Art and fashion, for you, is there a distinction between the two?

DrNOKI-NHS: First, it would have been fashion because I just saw clothes as fashion; as I’ve grown older and realized how insecure I was about being an artist, understanding the art process and believing I could be an artist. I now see my practice as customization as pure textile reconstruction collage, my shows as installations like my most recent event at the Ace Hotel, Hoi Polloi London, my street couture collections on matchesfashion.com as wearable art, and the ‘Human’ as the artist’s Muse. I like to think they can go deep into the rave den as I did, so then I can be inspired to dissect new ideas on a gallery wall.

FC: What’s the NOKI aesthetic and how has it evolved?

DrNOKI-NHS: I’ve full aesthetic disclosure on my Instagram! I’m known as the brand mash-up artist and for wearing a mask created from the brand. It’s been my way of being honest to my public as nonbinary I suppose, back in the ’90s. You are NOKI and I am YOU!! You can also DIY custom build your own ‘street couture’ brand. I took that mask to fashion week 2019. David Waddington and Pablo Flack invited me to be there NOKI-AIR-Artist in Residence in their Hoi Polloi restaurant and bar in Ace Hotel London, so I set up my NOKI studio from Brighton, on the special Dionysis table [by George Henry Longly] there, and carried on creating the samples for the Katharine Hamnett PERiSHING collection as a working installation. I pre-customised 40 Katherine Hamnett slogan T’s with my Fade screenprint mash-up, to celebrate Katharine’s 40 years in the fashion industry. During the launch party and residency, we sold them to raise important funds for the dearly departed Judy via the Judy Blame Charitable Trust.

FC: Tell us about your process…

DrNOKI-NHS  For 20+ years I’ve only ever used 2nd life or second-hand sportswear or deadstock textiles to collage my custom builds from. I follow a modern Dada mantra; I find the object and I build a new idea from it. I’m very happy to see a sustainable movement growing to define this kind of practice and to be part of this and be a creative artist within this movement. I teach at degree level and my students find my custom build theories very liberating to practice. ‘The Fashion Monster’ was created at Kingston University London and was a huge success, showcasing in the Canadian embassy during fashion week 2015. My inspiration artist is Lucio Fontana. His cuts and his stabs were so directional. They point a finger at his own self worth as an artist and liberated himself to forward modern ideas with his creative practice.

FC: What do you try and communicate with your line?

DrNOKI-NHS: NOKI is pure liberation. It is what I’ve always called Street Couture. Noki came from the original days of Shoreditch in 1995 onwards and what I create now is the same as it was then, but hyper refined and modernized for the 21st Century human.

FC: What’s the NOKI aesthetic and how has it evolved?

DrNOKI-NHS: I’m known for wearing a Mask. It’s been my way of being honest to my public as non-binary I suppose. You are NOKI and I am YOU.

FC: What keeps you driven?

DrNOKI-NHS: Knowing that the mountains of textile waste are still growing means that my inspiration can possibly be infinite.

FC: You recently teamed up the Katharine Hamnett where you customized and repurposed her deadstock tees – how did that come about?

DrNOKI-NHS:  I’m a huge fan of her since the 80’s she uses modern casual sportswear and her textiles are the true ethical sustainable real deal. All the brands want her modern credentials; she is Queen Modern and her clothes are futurist’s armor.  Now when I NOKI them up, well that’s called the PERiSHING collection – weaponized textiles and that is the 21st century fast forward with a micro footprint, amnesty.  The name PERiSHING came from a subvert I created from Katharine’s inspirational altruistic body billboard advert ‘58% DONT WANT PERSHING’ that was created the night before she entered 10 Downing Street to meet our ‘Cold War monger’ Prime Minister at that time, Margaret Thatcher. PERSHING became ‘100% don’t want to be PERiSHING ‘. I thought this is a powerful word to find and put out there for contemplation on the body billboard, and on a practical level to save some deadstock textiles from Perishing! And to create an important textile commodity, the Katharine Hamnett brand has already produced, galvanizing another level within her modern fashion brand ethos.

FC: Any pearls of wisdom that you’d like to share?

DrNOKI-NHS:  Yes, I’ve always followed a personal mantra. Rejection breeds Reinvention. Love from DrNoki-NHS.

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