Greg Lauren

What initially made you fall in love with secondhand fabrics?

I grew up going to vintage shops in New York City – my favourites were the hidden ones scattered around Downtown. I have fond memories of sifting through the racks at Canal Street’s Army Navy store, looking for a perfect shirt. As I got older, I'd go to flea markets with my parents, where I’d be thrilled to find a distressed leather belt or a perfectly destroyed denim jacket. I was like a kid in a candy store.
 

How did this love of vintage transform into Greg Lauren the brand?

I would visit all the classic markets – Portobello Road in London, Clignancourt in Paris, and The Rose Bowl and Melrose Trading Post in Los Angeles, which is where I really took it to the next level.

Los Angeles is where I developed a large network of contacts in the vintage world. I’d reach out to them privately and say, ‘I’d love 100 of those…’ At first, they thought I was crazy because not many people were using vintage. I spent many afternoons walking over piles of dusty clothes in warehouses, picking the pieces that spoke to me the most.

How has being a painter as well as a designer influenced your work?

I’ve been drawing since I was a child, so I always try to interpret the world around me through an artistic lens. I have an artisanal approach to making clothing.

Were you conscious of ‘sustainability’ when you started designing, or is it naturally intertwined within your practice? 

Ironically, my concept of recycling really began with this notion of ‘recycling image’. I was obsessed with looking at all the iconic archetypes and destroying them so they could be seen in a new way. I use vintage materials because I love the aesthetic and the emotional connection I felt for every scrap. We developed a ‘no scrap goes unused’ policy. I don’t know why, but I couldn’t get myself to throwaway all these beautiful scraps.
 

Notable members of your family are in fashion – how has this influenced you? 

I’ve spent my life establishing my own voice. My uncle is, perhaps, one of the most successful fashion designers in the world and my father (his brother) has been the head of men’s design at Ralph Lauren for 50 years.

Since a young age, I’ve been immersed in the ideas, references and the specific styles that Ralph Lauren has brought to life. We spoke about style and image the way other families would talk about sports or politics. Watching a movie would not exist without us also examining the clothes, the way a suit draped, for instance.

I started to question the world I was taught about, the artificial, aspirational world. I could, of course, appreciate the beauty of it, but I wanted something else. I needed to look to my own heroes rather than those I had inherited – who doesn’t love Fred Astaire? I’ve always said, I learned to dress like Cary Grant but I felt more like Oliver Twist. I love broken, imperfect heroes like Mad Max and Rocky. The inspiration for my collections often comes from reinventing those archetypes.
 

You’ve recently been making COVID-19 masks – what has this journey been like? 

My brother-in-law is a doctor at CEDARS SINAI hospital in LA, so it was a great feeling when we realised that what we do every day could help those in need. At first, we deconstructed the regular store-bought air-conditioning filters from Home Depot and sandwiched these between army twill and flannel. We are known for upcycling, but, before this, I can honestly say that we have never upcycled air-conditioned filters before. Now that the focus is back on cloth masks, we’re making masks daily and donating them to as many people on the front line as possible.