Clothing Designer Andrew Nowell
Yesterday we had the opportunity to speak with Clothing Designer Andrew Nowell. What started off as a standard interview turned into a conversation in which we touched on a variety of topics that ranged from where he's presently located to the “Redlining” that occurs in the fashion industry. Although there were so many more questions that we wanted to ask him during the interview, we couldn’t due to time constraints on our end. However, we do plan on inviting Mr. Nowell back for a second interview in which we will dive deeper into him not only as a clothing designer but as a fashion industry insider.
Creation of Fashion Designer
Andrew Nowell
Mens Fashion Designer Andrew Nowell is a former Navy Veteran that currently resides within the Washington D.C. area and was recently invited by Brent Law to showcase his talent as a Fashion Designer at the “A Night In Paris Fashion Show” which was held at in Houston Texas on June 11 this year (2023). As we stated in our previous article entitled “A Night In Paris Fashion Show” this was a fashion show that was celebrated as “The greatest fashion show in Houston Texas in 10 years”. During our conversation he informed us that he has been working within the fashion industry for over 25 years and that he focused on men’s fashion while he was in high school in New York. That’s right, he is a native New Yorker from the Bronx; and he attended the Fashion Institute of Technology located in New York.
Creation of Fashion Designer
Andrew Nowell
One of the things that we really enjoyed when speaking about Mr. Nowell is his high degree of honesty and integrity that is built off his 25 plus years of being a Fashion Designer. Growing up in the Bronx of New York, which is where hip-hop first originated, he revealed to us that this is where he drew his inspiration from as it pertains to men’s clothing design. To be more specific, Hip-hop groups like Run-DMC were used as examples to articulate where his inspiration came from.
Creation of FashionDesigner
Andrew Nowell
Asking Mr. Nowell another question along the lines of “how does one get into the fashion industry and is the fashion industry “fickle”?” He stated:
“It's a lot of politics that govern the fashion industry and it's not as easy to get into it as people may think. It takes a lot of money; power and it takes being in existence for a long time. And the common attitude of “if they can do it, I can do it too” is a non-starter for anyone that is looking to get into the fashion industry. The reason why is because people that are looking to get into the fashion industry are failing to understand that politics and networking are very important.”
Creation of FashionDesigner
Andrew Nowell
He also stated:
“A lot of Black Owned brands think that can depend on their community, but they can’t really because they have to learn how to network outside of the Black Community.”
Creation of Fashion Designer
Andrew Nowell
These words of wisdom are jewels that many minorities, specifically aspiring American Black Clothing Designers really do fail to consider. Switching topics, we touched on how a consumer’s geographical location plays a vital role in the construction of a garment, type of material used, and style in how the garment will be worn. During the topic of this part of the conversation, Mr. Nowell utilized a personal example from his own life when he spoke about being born and raised in New York then enlisting in the U.S. navy and the culture shock he experienced being stationed in the American South. He stated [paraphrasing]:
“At the time, I had a high-top fade. It was kind of socially acceptable to be “different” in New York as it was a place where individual style and fashion was encouraged and was the norm. When I got stationed in the [Anerican] South, it was much more conservative. So, when I went outside with my high-top fade, people looked at me like I was an alien. What’s fashionable in the [American] South just may not be fashionable in New York (and vice versa).”
Creation of Fashion Designer
Andrew Nowell
That’s a personal story of his, that we think many people can relate to. Especially during these times when people have become more transitory than ever. As economic conditions change, so will the geographical location of people change – thus, so, will what’s considered fashionable in clothing design and wear change, as diversity in clothing and social exchanges take place. And speaking of diversity in clothing we asked Mr. Nowell the following question: How do you select the fabric of your garments? He stated:
“Another way in which I became inspired for the pieces that were displayed for the Night In Paris Fashion Show was from the guys that grew upon the block [neighborhood] with me; the movies I saw growing up and male masculinity.”
Creation of Fashion Designer
Andrew Nowell
He stated that many of the fabrics that were used to make his garment for the fashion show were made from fabrics that are made to make women’s clothes, but he wanted to make them not only sexy for his men’s clothing line, but he wanted his clothing pieces to be masculine at the same time. His idea for the unorthodox use of fabrics came about during the pandemic lock downs that occurred in virtually every city of America during the era of COVID-19. He stated that he got tired of seeing the same type of men’s clothing over and over again and wanted to bring something new to the fashion industry that was different in terms of men’s wear. The line that he used that stood out to us the most was:
“Fabrics have no sexuality.”
One of the examples that you used to illustrate his point was the fashion of the 1970’s. He highlighted the fact that clothing designers did in fact used elements from women’s clothes to make clothes for men. The first thing that popped into our minds were platform shoes. Another example that came to our minds after the interview was over was the style of dress that the artist formerly known as Prince used as his signature style of the 1980’s. He had more of an anadromous look – neither looking like a male or female. That stood out to us because so often we are quick to classify a garment as either “for men” or “for women'', but what happens when it could be for both? This revelation led us to ask him the following question: “where do you see fashion going?”. He stated:
“It's kind of difficult to answer the question of where fashion is going because we would have to look at the clothes of today and branch out from there. Fashion is often determined by world events such as “climate issues”. Because we are facing a climate crisis, Seasonless Collections are beginning to develop more and more. During the Pandemic we went from tailored clothing but switched over to loser fitting clothing because of the significant increase of people working from home. That nearly killed the tailored suit business. Designers had to change what they were making to accommodate that growing market during that time.”
Creation of Fashion Designer
Andrew Nowell
On the topic of the future fashion trends, Mr. Nowell made it a point to emphasize that:
“The future of Clothing is trending towards department stores either not having a men’s or women section as “gender neutral clothing” is becoming more popular or they may simply add a third section outside of the confines of what we currently know as a “men’s” or “women’s section””.
Creation of Fashion Designer
Andrew Nowell
He went on to account for an assignment he and his classmates were given while he was in fashion school. He said:
“We were given an assignment to design clothing that we thought people would wear in the year 2000. He said that a lot of students used a lot of metallics.”
We were left wondering why the students during his time in fashion school would imagine that the people in the year 2000 would wear metallic clothes. Moving past that discussion and just for a reaction, we asked Mr. Nowell what he thought of the “Big Red Boots” that have been trending on social media for a while and he provided the best answer we have had since their conception. He stated:
“It gets clicks, views and they bring attention to the people who wear these kinds of things. But people who wear these things are simply looking for some sort of social media notoriety and attention.”
Creation of Fashion Designer
Andrew Nowell
Is it safe to say that the Big Red Boots are nothing more than a gimmick used by social media influencers? We think so considering the above answer of a professional designer combined with the fact that these boots have no real world applied use other than providing fake attention for attention whores. There. We said it. He also stated that the fashion industry has become decadent when it comes to uplifting quality and craftsmanship in terms of clothing. And according to Mr. Nowell it’s about who can sell the most – no matter what the product is. Continuing our conversation, Mr. Nowell also made the statement that he feels like people like him are a “dying breed”. This was a very intriguing statement because he pointed out to us that everyone that calls themselves a “Designer” is not in fact a “Designer”.
Creation of Fashion Designer
Andrew Nowell
When asked what he meant by that, he explained that there are people out there that purchase premade clothing garments from China and then attach their logo on it and try to pass themselves off as a “Clothing Designer”. When he mentioned this, it was very easy to see how real designers like him could feel somewhat cheated out of the prestige of actually earning the designation of being a clothing designer as they acquired their knowledge base through extensive studying and education to earn the title. Ladies and gentlemen, there is no substitute for hard work, dedication, and discipline when it comes to earning the title of “Fashion Designer” or anything else for that matter. We think he would want us to inform you and the reading audience of that. Switching parameters, Mr. Nowell spoke about industry “redlining” when it comes to Black American Fashion Designers. He stated that there are “gatekeepers” so to speak that purposely keep Black American Fashion Designer’s sidelined out of the limelight when it comes to fashion.
Creation of Fashion Designer
Andrew Nowell
What we mean by redlining in the context of the fashion industry is that a lot of the fashion houses engage in what we like to call “consumer stratification”; literally selling economically disadvantaged people a certain kind of clothing and sell economically inclined people better quality clothing made of better material and with hardly any branding on them whatsoever. See our article on Quiet Luxury here. Mr. Nowell made it a point to point out the main difference between a true luxury piece and commoners’ piece and that is the how and where the garment is branded. If you wear a piece of clothing that is heavily branded with the company’s logo everywhere, it’s more than likely made for poorer people. The reason for this he explained is because fashion houses know that poorer people want to feel “important” and recognizable just like the brand that they’re wearing. So, they play on that fact.
Moreover, according to Mr. Nowell there seems to be a stereotype that categorizes and isolates Black American Fashion Designer’s as merely only able to do what is known as “streetwear” or some other kind of “urban fashion”. Mr. Nowell recalled a time when he himself had been a victim of this stereotype during a fashion event where they didn’t think that a Black American could produce exceptionally high-quality men’s wear and thus, they perpetrated the stereotype of Black Americans only being able to do “streetwear fashion”. Can the fashion industry do better in their approach when it comes to Black American designers – yes. The next question is will they? The answer seems to be “maybe”.
Creation of Fashion Designer
Andrew Nowell
What’s the solution? Mr. Nowell simply explained it like this.
“Black American Fashion Designer’s need to put out a good product.”
There’s simply no way around that fact. As with any industry the respect you garner is akin to the product that you put out. If you’re interested in emodeling and or purchasing any of the men’s clothing designs by Andrew Nowell you can reach out to him via Instagram at: @andrewnowell_menswear.
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