Marc Moore is one of the judges for iD Emerging Young Designer Awards next week in Dunedin.Stolen Girlfriends Club will also be taking to the catwalk in Dunedin’s Railway Station. I ran a couple of questions past him in the lead up to iD next week…

What collection will SGC be showing at iD this year?

WE ARE SHOWING OUR MOST RECENT COLLECTION FOR HIGH-WINTER (OR AS WE CALL IT – ‘ACTUAL-WINTER’ BECAUSE IT SHIPS TO STORES WHEN IT’S ACTUALY COLD). THE COLLECTION IS CALLED ‘THE CURSE THAT FLEW RIGHT PAST YOU’. DON’T ASK ME WHY THAT NAME! I THINK I SAW THIS CAPTION ON ONE OF MY FRIENDS SNAPCHATS ONE TIME AND JUST THOUGHT IT SOUNDED COOL HAHA. I WAS GOING TO TRY GET ALL DEEP ON IT AND SAY THE TITLE HAD SOMETHING TO DO WITH LIFE PASSING YOU BY BLAH BLAH, BUT IT DOESN’T.

Can you tell us a bit about the collections influences?

THERE WASN’T REALLY AN UNDERLYING THEME OR INFLUENCE FOR THIS COLLECTION.
FOR ME, I JUST WANTED THE GENERAL AESTHETIC TO BE ‘OLD-STOLEN’ SO THIS WAS A RETURN TO THE BRAND’S ORGINAL SPIRIT – GRUNGEY / GRITTY / ANDROGYNOUS. THIS COLLECTION IS MADE UP OF INDIVIDUAL PIECES THAT WE (EVERYONE THAT WORKS IN THE OFFICE) WANTED TO WEAR. I THINK SOMETIMES WE CAN GET A BIT CARRIED AWAY WITH AIRY-FAIRY THEMES ETC. I LIKE THE IDEA OF WORKING WITH REALITY, MAKING PIECES THAT PEOPLE ACTUALLY WANT TO WEAR AND WITHOUT GIMMICK OR NOVELTY. I GUESS WITH STOLEN GIRLFRIENDS CLUBS PRODUCTS, THEY CAN BE LIKE WEARING A ‘BADGE OF HONOUR’ IN A WAY SO I’M ALWAYS CONCISOUS OF MAKING SHIT THAT’S COOL. BUT IN GENERAL, IT FEELS MORE ACCESSIBLE TO ME – IT’S REAL, AND WITH THE GRUNGEY UNDERTONES IT’S VERY ‘STOLEN’. WE’VE TAKEN THE SIZE OF THE COLLECTIONS DOWN CONSIDERABLY TOO, IT ALLOWS US MORE TIME TO FOCUS ON EACH PIECE, THE DETAILING, THE QUALITY, FIT, EVERYTHING. PLUS IT DOESN’T STRESS OUR TEAM OUT AS MUCH WITH A REDUCED SIZE COLLECTION.

You are in quite salubrious company as iD’s National Guest Designer for 2017… 

HAHA I’M SO USELESS, I HAVEN’T EVEN CHECKED WHO IS SHOWING. I KNOW SOME REALLY GREAT DESIGNERS HAVE SHOWN IN THE YEARS BEFORE WHICH MAKES US FEEL SUPER HONOURED TO HAVE EVEN BEEN ASKED!

As well as that you are also going to be part of the judging panel for iD International Emerging Designer Awards. What will you be looking for with the collections?

I’M GOING TO BE LOOKING FOR SOMETHING NEW, OR ATLEAST SOMETHING THAT’S ALREADY BEEN DONE WITH A NEW SPIN ON IT. I THINK THESE DAYS IT’S REALLY HARD TO COME UP WITH SOMETHING COMPLETELY NEW, SO I REALLY DO GET A KICK OUT OF SEEING WHERE PEOPLE CAN TAKE IDEAS THAT ALREADY EXIST TOO. LOVE THAT REINVENTION.

Aside from all the fabulous fashion for iD, Dunedin itself gets quite a showing – what are you looking forward to doing/seeing? 

WE HAVE SOME REALLY GOOD FRIENDS IN DUNEDIN SO I’M MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING THEM ACTUALLY! I ALSO LOVE THE ARCHITECTURE DOWN THERE, SUCH A COOL VIBE TO THAT CITY SO ALWAYS LOVE JUST HANGING OUT. I THINK THE OVERALL DARKER VIBE AND SILHOUETTE TO THE FASHION DOWN THERE SUITS ME BETTER OR AT LEAST RESONATES WITH ME (DESPITE ME BEING A SURFER AND BEACH GUY HAHA). I’VE BEEN TO DUNEDIN HEAPS SO WON’T BE GETTING ALL TOURISTY.

Photographs are of SGC AW 2017 “Violence, Terror, Chaos and Other Poems” at NZFW 2016 by the very clever Michelle Weir of Studio Weir