OAMC's Luke Meier Shares His Thoughts on Luxury Clothing's Place in Society
“Luxury clothing is just that – luxury. We should all remember to keep priorities in line.”
In a recent interview with Roden Gray, OAMC co-founder Luke Meier took some time to discuss a few of the themes and inspirations surrounding his label. From his early days studying business and commerce at both Georgetown and Oxford University to his eight-year stint at Supreme, Meier’s calculated approach to fashion is largely shaped by the experiences he’s had and the portfolio he’s built. One of the main points he went further into detail on was discussing how he was able to combine what he saw in the media with the skills and habits he picked up thus far in his career, which played a large part in the label’s Fall 2017 collection.
The collection began as a personal study of tailoring. Do I need this type of clothing? While questioning this, I thought about the codes that tailoring represents: formal occasions, a specific way to present yourself to gain acceptance, to gain access. While I was working on the collection, there was a lot of police violence in the media (before and since, no doubt, but there seemed to be more than usual in that particular moment). I kept seeing images of SWAT teams and special forces in tactical gear, and it really made me think about uniform. The parallel between urban military uniforms and tailoring was interesting to me because they both center around the ideas of access and acceptance. Gaining access through force or through uniform. And both of these ideas seemed very dark to me, sinister.
Meier went on to talk about how the charities he works with inspires him to make the best clothing he possibly can. He emphasizes the importance of giving back and that at the end of the day, luxury clothing should be treated as a want rather than a need.
If we could work with hundreds of charities we would. We select garments that we think will do well commercially for these projects because we want to achieve a good result for each charity we work with. There are so many things that are necessary to support and fight for on this planet. Luxury clothing is just that – luxury. We should all remember to keep priorities in line. If we can afford luxury, give to those who can’t.
Head over to Roden Gray to read the full interview for yourself.
