It's Nice That on Robert Ventura Gibson

[froodle]

I imagine that we have all also, at one time or another, been involved in some sort of gang – be it in the playground or maybe something a bit more post-pubescent and sinister. Either way, there’s a certain something about secret societies and clubs that is just deliciously enticing. LCF graduate and secret society fanatic Robert Ventura Gibson has burst onto the fashion scene and is currently the toast of the town with his outrageously beautiful menswear, inspired by Freemasons, Goosebumps, Illuminati, Filipino prison tattoos and Are You Afraid of The Dark. Robert kindly gave us an unbelievably intriguing in-depth interview, read on to find out the secrets of his collection…

Your sketches and mood-board pieces are brilliant! tell us about the inspiration behind the collection?
I’ve always watched a lot of TV, even as a kid, and I loved (and still do) programmes like Are You Afraid Of The Dark, Eerie Indiana, Goosebumps and films like Stand By Me. Growing up in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by woodland I’d spend a lot of time outside (when I could fit in around TV schedules) climbing trees, building things, making bows and arrows etc, but I always wanted to being in a secret club, going on mad adventures and solving crimes.

So, for my collection, I wanted to draw parallels between secret childhood clubs, like “The Midnight Society” in _Are You Afraid Of The Dark_, who just met up to tell stories, and the secret societies of the New World Order, looking at the Illuminati, Freemasons and The Bilderberg Group etc who seem to (according to followers of David Icke) control everything. I just thought it was funny that there’s always that desire to being a a secret club and knowing stuff that others don’t.

My dad was a Mason, so growing up I was very aware of it, I remember always wondering what he did at lodge meetings, what was in his briefcase and if I’d ever find out anything. I’m just realising it now, but I guess for me freemasonry has always had a connection with childhood. Spending so much time reading about secret societies has certainly had an effect on me though, just search “Illuminati olympics 2012” on Youtube, its a whole world of paranoia to get sucked into.

With regards to the actual product, I wanted to use classic menswear shapes to keep it wearable, twisted slightly with colour and surface decoration, so everything seemed a little off-kilter from the norm. I’m not someone who’s really strong at structural pattern cutting and crazy shapes, I’m a bit of a traditionalist and I guess I want to design clothes that I can show my mum and she’ll understand what’s going on and not wonder what I was doing at uni for seven years.