Biography
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The Sunday Times - Status? S/S 1998Andrew Groves graduated from Central St Martins MA Fashion course in 1997 with a collection that made front page news the following day. He launched his debut full runway collection "Status?" during London Fashion Week the following September, and started what was the beginning of what has now became LFW's off-schedule calendar.
His shows took as their inspiration non-traditional fashion themes including republicanism and patriotism, drug use, mental illness, and the diaspora of refugees, and drew on the work of Susan Sontag, JG Ballard and Michel Foucault.
His use of such literary references widely confused, angered and annoyed audiences and journalists alike.
Mixing traditional Savile Row tailoring techniques with found objects such as masonry nails, hair and dead flies, his aesthetic mixed the worlds of literature, fine art and fashion.
His design work is now collected by museums such as the V&A in London, and is proving to be inspirational to a number of the new fashion designers both in London and internationally.