Samuel Ross: The Doctor Of – Multi-Hyphenate – Arts
With his interdisciplinary approach, the British designer has revolutionised the industry and received a prestigious academic title.
«Wagwan, my G?»
Each morning – on my commute to Brixton, London – I was greeted by my trusted barista with these exact words. However, the title barista would be close to an insult for the multi-talented Jamaican-born Brit. Besides making the best espresso in South London, he also designed clothes, was a pioneer of London's garage DJ scene, and organised the wildest parties when the sun went down.
The barista, to whom I now pay a visit every morning, also not only serves an incomparable Americano, but is furthermore a coffee roaster, fashion designer, and retailer of all kinds of coffee paraphernalia. Hence, it is clear that nowadays one is not only an expert in one field – even outside the coffee industry.
Samuel Ross is the living evidence of this phenomenon. The designer, who also calls Brixton his home and hopefully goes to the same barista as I did, was just last week presented with an honorary doctorate from the University of Westminster. Thanks to his exceptional contribution to design, the creative industries, and his outstanding support for others through his philanthropy, as well as his multi-hyphenate nature, he was awarded this title as one of the youngest people ever.
It Started With Faking Nike and Adidas Clothes
Although Ross was born in Brixton in the depths of South London, he grew up in Wellingborough in Northamptonshire, England. A small town of 50,000 people with a medieval feel and a church dating back to 1160. Ross was able to grow up in a large Caribbean and Indian community in the town, which is about 100 kilometres from London, as the second generation of Windrush parents with Caribbean roots.
The designer describes his circumstances as working class. For him and his childhood peers, sporting goods from brands like Nike and Adidas were coveted status symbols – so coveted that he began replicating these items at a young age, earning a little extra pocket money.
It was precisely this aptitude for design and interest in visual objects that were his ticket out of the neighbourhood. «Everyone else stayed and got normal jobs in the Ends, the neighbourhood, or whatever», he said in an interview with Complex. The teenage Ross was drawn to De Montfort University for a bachelor's degree in graphic design and illustration, from which he graduated with 1st Class Honours. This was partly because of his wide-ranging interests and talents: He was always able to pepper his work in his studies with architectural references, thus showing his multidisciplinary disposition at an early age.
After graduating, the Brit did not go straight into fashion but proved his skills in advertising beforehand. However, this was a short-lived affair: «The agency was great. All they did was take us out for beer and dinner. We always ate very well. Then within two months, the agency went out of business because no one was working.»
Lifting the Boundaries of Materials
During this time, however, working in an advertising agency was not enough for him. He started his first own streetwear brand 2wnt4. With his unusual design sense and approach to materials, he quickly caught the attention of Virgil Abloh. The latter, who is also an advocate of multidisciplinarity, appreciated his talent from the beginning.
For about three years, Ross worked as Abloh's assistant, thereby gaining access to Abloh's inner circle – including Kanye West, for whom Abloh worked as creative director. Among other things, he worked on the Hood by Air label and was involved in West's collection for the French label A.P.C.. After these successes, he founded his label A-Cold-Wall, and the journey really began.
With his work at A-Cold-Wall, he has definitively proven his multidisciplinarity: Ross has exhausted and expanded the boundaries of materials, realised the most diverse approaches to design, and blended the boundaries between architecture and fashion.
Particularly noteworthy are his works with plastic. In recent years, he has developed a special preference for plastic units in his clothes, creating an almost unprecedented diffusion.
A Multi-Disciplinary Future
Thus we see from Samuel Ross' impressive career how important it is nowadays to have a versatile education and to develop fields of expertise in different areas. In the future, education as well as requirements in professional life will spread to various fields of activity and we have to keep up with this.
Until then, we should all take Samuel Ross as an example and eagerly watch what boundaries he will blend together in the near future.
Love,
Pascal