Meet the man who invented sportswear
A new show centres on the fashion industry’s lesser-known creatives
If there’s one profession you’d expect to feature at the heart of every exhibition at London’s Photographers’ Gallery, it would be, well, that of the photographer. However, the gallery’s latest show draws into focus that less prominent image-maker: the stylist.
Their role, to cast and clothe models, pick outfits and work on visual concepts for photo shoots, is little understood and rarely held in high regard. Yet a few skilled stylists can upgrade an ordinary fashion snap to a stop-and-stare image.
Simon Foxton is one of those few. He has served as a creative consultant for Levi’s and a contributing fashion editor for i-D magazine. Foxton is widely credited with introducing sportswear into our everyday wardrobe. “It’s difficult to imagine a time when sportswear wasn’t readily available on the high street,” he says, “yet it was quite a new thing to view sportswear as designer wear when I started out.”
His works are held in the collections of the V&A museum and the Tate, and a retrospective of his career goes on display at this central London gallery this month. Yet Foxton remains modest. “My mum still thinks I’m a clothes designer,” he jokes when we meet.
An 1983 graduate from London’s Central Saint Martins college, Foxton has done everything from dressing elderly ranch hands in the latest Levi’s jeans through to morphing muscle boys into a minotaur (pictured) for a shoot with photographer Nick Knight. Having shaped a quarter century of British imagery, Foxton remains unconcerned by his vocation’s obscurity.
“Most people don’t realise what we do,” he says, “yet it doesn’t matter. It’s the images that count.”
When You’re a Boy: Men’s Fashion Styled by Simon Foxton, 17 July – 4 October, The Photographers’ Gallery, 16-18 Ramillies Street, London W1, www.photonet.org.uk
