David Bowie collaborator Hingston Studio is one of the creatives behind this year’s biggest fashion exhibition.
Tom Hingston is celebrating the interconnection of performance, menswear and the fluidity of expression alongside the world’s best designers with his newest project for the Victoria and Albert Museum titled Fashioning Masculinities. The London-based designer and creative director has collaborated throughout the decades with iconic musicians like David Bowie, Lady Gaga and Grace Jones, curating a soulful expression that uncovers their soul through movement.
Nowadays, Hingston has taken part in one of the V&A’s biggest fashion exhibitions, examining the deep connections between how menswear has been approached throughout modern history, all the way to the boundary-breaking, expressive position within fashion and its importance of mirroring identity. Speaking to Perfect, he tells us more about his favourite project with David Bowie, the best part of his job and collaborating with choreographer Russell Maliphant.
Angel: How was your experience creating the Fashioning Masculinities campaign at the V&A? What were your starting points?
Tom Hingston: It was a great project to work on. Claire (Wilcox) and Rosalind (McKever) have curated a fantastic show and the team at the V&A were wonderfully supportive in our process. There’s a lot of trust there and that always makes for good creative work.
We wanted to celebrate the performance of men’s clothing and ultimately present fashion at its best; alive and in motion. There is of course, a long, established history of photographers and artists who have experimented with movement and clothing in portraiture – Martin Munkácsi, Philippe Halsman, Avedon and then later Longo – all of whom were important points of reference in our first discussions.
Given the scale of the show, the campaign had to be expansive in its reach, both in print and digital – so the variation in format was wide ranging – from the side of a bus, a social post, digital banners, on site installations, or a digital underground display – we conceived one overarching idea that could flex across all these different touch points.
In early conversations with Russell Maliphant we spoke about the idea of choreographing a sequence which allowed the dancer to explore a range of contrasting shapes – extended horizontals and elongated verticals – all captured as motion and stills. In rehearsals Maliphant spent time defining a physical performance that transitioned through varying compositions. So that, although there are certain fixed elements at play which bring consistency – outfit, colour, typography – we also have fluidity of movement and form. This established an image palette that could work across the campaign in a dynamic way, ensuring that we present the best pose or figurative composition for any given format.
Angel: What is your process like, do you have a similar process throughout all of your projects?
Tom Hingston: Every project is very different obviously, but we tend to begin with a process of extensive research into the subject matter – this is partly through conversation and partly through observation or reading. Our team is split between designers, animators and writers so the process of research tends to yield a wide and diverse pool of material because they’re approaching things from very different perspectives. The cross pollination of those skill sets is also an important part of our practice – it shapes our whole approach.
Angel: You have worked with the biggest musicians throughout the years like Lady Gaga, Grace Jones and Sade, what would you recall is the most exciting project you have worked on in music?
Tom Hingston: We’ve been fortunate enough to work with some amazing musicians and artists over the years – something which I’m enormously grateful for. We’ve had some amazing experiences along the way – photographing Grace Jones at Thorntons Chocolate Factory in Derbyshire was definitely one of those, so it’s tricky to isolate any one particular project, but I have to say that working with David Bowie brings back very fond memories – we created two music videos together. The wonderful thing about working with David was that he was so invested in the process. Initially we’d begin with a conversation, exchanging ideas and references and through dialogue we would then shape and sculpt what became the finished piece. Director Johan Renck said of the process of working with Bowie that it’s a bit like when you’re a kid building Lego together with a friend and I think that analogy is exactly right. I feel very honoured to have had the opportunity to work with him in that way.
Angel: What would you say is the most exciting part of your job? Has it changed throughout the years?
Tom Hingston: The process of collaboration is definitely one of the most exciting and rewarding aspects of what I do; it also forms a central part of our practice as a studio. The power of collective human endeavour can produce some incredible things! I think one’s confidence grows over time, our projects have become more complex with greater numbers of people involved. Maturity and experience have helped gradually refine the process and of course, technology is also a great enabler of collaboration. We’ve worked on projects with team members located across six different countries simultaneously and the process has been seamless.
Angel: How do you see yourself going forward in the next year? What are you looking forward to, both creatively and personally?
Tom Hingston: We’re currently working on a series of digital projects that will form part of our entry point into the Web3 space. The new platforms offer so many thrilling possibilities to us a studio and the way we think and work – it feels like this next era will foster some of the most interesting collaborations we’ve embarked upon as a team. The best is yet to come, as they say…
And on a personal note, my wife has also just given birth to twin boys – so it’s definitely a time of exciting change!
