When I saw Pam Hogg’s show for AW09 during London Fashion Week it felt like a perfect alignment of stars as the girls of the moment stalked past in all manner of shiny finery. The look was 100% feminine yet with a powerful, indomitable even superheroic overcurrent. Yes, we’d seen Kylie and Siouxsie sporting Hogg’s figure-hugging catsuits but it was always one at a time. To see Hogg Couture en masse showed the world that not only does this lady know her way around a catsuit,; “Highway Wayward Women” was so much more than that.
Pam Hogg’s journey is an inspirational one. It says never give up, follow your dreams and your heart - however clichéd that my sound. She’s deviated from one creative path to another, but all these threads of creativity make the whole of who sits before me…the lithe, beautiful rock n roller in black skintight lycra and leather with “honour” and “justice” tattooed on her knuckles has come a long way baby…
MADAME: You didn’t start out studying fashion did you?
PAM HOGG: I had no intention of doing fashion. I was going to be a Fine Artist. I deplored fashion. It’s built on trends, which I hate, but when I was a kid I loved clothes, I used to get hand me downs and alter them. I studied Fine Art and printed textiles in Glasgow and ended up coming to London to go to the Royal College but most importantly I came here and discovered the Blitz. You had to get past the scrutiny of Steve Strange who checked you at the door, so I started making clothes again just to get into his club, after that people started asking me to make clothes for them and it spiralled into my first collection which was bought instantly by Bloomingdales and Bendels in New York – I thought this happened to everyone! The next season I ended up in Hyper Hyper and a few years later I had my own shop on Newburgh St in Soho.
What I was saying about seeing Hogg Couture en masse earlier makes me think that there would be something so perfect about Pam having a boutique again today. Wierdly, during our interview Pam takes a call about a possible pop-up-shop this summer. I would love other women to be able to have the choice I had of trying on a catsuit followed by kitten suit followed by dress… I was dressing-up as a “Galaxy Warrior”, plus I had Pam’s practiced eye and instinct for the perfect outfit for me!
PH: I can look at someone and tell which catsuit is for her…
M: (mincing, gyrating and feeling about a foot taller than 5’6”) Yes you can!!!!!
PH: I would never set out to design a “sexy” piece of clothing…if you wear something of mine you feel in control, it’s not about titillation, it’s for them, the women…guys appreciate it but I’m designing it for the women.
M: The catsuit is a misunderstood garment…
PH: Yes..it’s actually quite easy as you don’t have to think about what to go with it, just shoes. In any catsuit you are making a statement…but I make them to accentuate and hide different body parts for different figures…
I can vouch for this 100%. Although I’d appreciated how the girls LOOKED on the catwalk, I was surprised how incredible I FELT inside the garments. Where I would wear a plunge-front kitten suit is one matter, but if I could’ve slipped a coat on and absconded in my second-skin believe me I would have! Conversely, I could have worn the strict yet comfortable wet-look dominatrix dress ANYWHERE…and the leggings could easily be assimilated into day wear. Who knew it was all so wearable?
Currently available in The Convenience Store’s pop-up shop in the St Martins Lane Hotel, the pieces you see in these pictures are all this summer’s Hogg Couture and are sold alongside more affordable Pam Hogg t shirts and her “I-con Mugs” which are a complete self-send-up featuring Pam the icon with rollers in her hair!
After the phenomenal success of Pam Hogg the fashion label, in 1992 she jacked it in to listen to her heart again and Doll, the band was formed. I saw Doll perform many times, you couldn’t take your eyes off the writhing, peroxide-blonde frontwoman, sprayed into the most obscenely tight “mens” suits customized from junk store finds, with the sweetest, most surprising voice…She opened for Blondie and looked set to follow her rock n roll spirit…
M: But the desire to make clothes never went away…
PH: If you are a creative person, you have to fulfill the urge and if you’re really determined, you’ll find a way.
I saw the film presentations that Pam made over the last couple of years featuring Siouxsie Sioux, Emily Ping Pong Bitch and Tree Carr rocking out against a mirrored background in Hogg, but the urge to do a proper show again became ever stronger…
PH: I do my best work when I’ve got a focus. I wanted to show for ages, I’ve no finance but I knew I was ready. I was ready 2 seasons ago but I was ABSOLUTELY ready this season. I worked from mid-December, all through Christmas, all through my birthday, I had no sponsorship, I didn’t know how to go about it. It’s such a daunting undertaking. I worked out how I could do a show for a fraction of the budget. I had the belief. I DJed to get money. I had some fabric in the basement, I had a student a couple of days a week…
As the time came nearer I thought, well, there’s not going to be a show, but something’s going to happen. The way the collection appeared on the catwalk was almost in the order it was made, except for the finale piece, which I started in December and completed minutes before it hit the runway. I was working through the night checking all the garments and come morning, at 5am on the day of the show, I suddenly remembered it wasn’t finished and immediately restarted on it. Liberty Ross was such a star, she stood in the middle of the dressing room backstage for 25 minutes, naked, while I created the final part of the garment on her. As I was taking the gown off, with 10 minutes left to complete, I saw the glint of the needles dangling from it and realised it was my favourite unfinished piece and decided to put it on the catwalk just as it was…
M: The incredible thing about the show is the fact that you basically did the whole thing yourself.
At around £850 for a Hogg Couture catsuit, when you consider the fact that each one is custom made and unique and takes about four days to create and is literally stitched by the designer herself, I think they come very reasonably priced. How many designer pieces could you boast not just the “handwriting” of the designer but her actual stitches! The answer is none. These are special and even wearing one for a few minutes brought that home very quickly.
Roisin Murphy, Kanye West’s girlfriend Amber Rose, Beth Ditto…you couldn’t pick three more different women in every sense, yet they’ve all had custom-made Hogg Couture. When Pam came onstage at the end of the show in the plain black highwaywoman catsuit with a single pink garter, she looked every bit as incredible as the six foot teens towering above her.
The Hogg shoot for Issue 1 of Love magazine styled by Joe McKenna emphasized the nouveau-sport-ness of her work, made them look wearable and effortless and it is this versatility I think that is so surprising. Not just for on-stage, although perfect for this, this is a thoroughly modern designer making clothes for the future, for living.
M: Could you have picked a worse financial climate to make a comeback?!
PH: My Recession Collection darling!!! Punk happened in a recession, it was a reaction against. When the money’s gone…against all odds we rise…the warrior thing is part of that. I used old fabric I had in the basement mixed with new. I’m not good at asking for things, but I have a lot of people on my side.
I kept thinking something would happen and then two weeks before the show I got a call and they GAVE me a show! Imagine if I hadn’t had the belief??? I wouldn’t have been ready. Then the reaction to the show was astounding…
There are some people you just want so much for. Pam’s ready…she’s taken the knocks, paid her dues, worked her little arse off , but nothing can kill a true artist in fact, try to crush their spirit and they’ll rise up even stronger. And Pam Hogg has never been stronger or more right.
