Pam Hogg
Interview by Rotor
Portrait by Mike Owen
Rotor: Did being awarded a doctorate change your view of yourself and subsequently your view of fashion?
PH: I recently discovered I’ve a severe form of dyslexia, so in retrospect it was quite a feat, a far cry from primary school where I was constantly devising schemes to avoid 'looking stupid' and the subsequent teacher’s punishment. Cruelty back then was prevalent in the misunderstanding of unseen disabilities. I’ve been using ways all my life to navigate and counteract this intolerance. In 2016 when asked if I'd accept the award, it was a high-octane jolt of sheer surprise, an immense thank you, as I'd also been denied any recognition from the British Fashion Council for all my years in fashion, even though praised by many respected designers including Karl Lagerfeld who called me Family. Scotland has recognised me several times with awards, and in 1990, nine years after I'd entered the realms of 'fashion', I was introduced live onto the Wogan show as, “A designer of cult status, one of the most original, innovative, creative designers in Britain”
Rotor: How do you perceive punk in 2021, and does punk still have a relevance in your designs today?
PH: Punk was and is an attitude. Late 70s it felt like home, a major connection, the coming together of all the outsiders ripping up the tag “normal”. Feeling connected to a movement energizes, you feel exonerated, it resonated, it's what steered my way forward.
I welcomed being out of step, being unorthodox was always in my DNA, as is chaos. I find solace in creating, whatever way it comes to me. There are no rules, only the energy that comes from new ideas when they start to formulate and take me on a journey to where I've no idea where I’m going. That's the spark, the fuse, then I’m off.
Political-Text Artwork Series by Pam Hogg
Rotor: Who is your favourite artist and describe how have they been influential in your creative path?
PH: I've many who inspire, and keep on inspiring, from Giotto and the Renaissance, to Blake and Dali, to the Pop Art years, to contemporary artists, and beyond. They switch on a light and become an underlying eternal burning flame. If I feel connected, all forms of art affect me in this way, I retain a glow of the energy which at any moment can unconsciously trigger the start of a process. I work in my head, so there's nothing tangible, it's more like something eventually emerges.
Photograph by FLO Kohl
Rotor: What were the magazines you read while you were growing up?
PH: I didn't really read magazines, Jackie for girls was always around at school, but I never sought them out and rarely do now. I never seem to have any time to read, but love flicking through when I'm sent a copy featuring my work. I became more aware of magazines when I started making clothes for commercial output, Honey showed my very first collection in 1981, and later on I'd pages in Vogue, ID, Blitz and The Face, at one point just about every magazine and newspaper covered my clothes. At the start of my TED X talk 2016, I refer to having the Christmas front cover of Vogue but no money to buy it.
Photograph by Simon Armstrong
Rotor: You have spoken often about the influence your father has had on your life. What is his greatest gift to you?
PH: He taught me to be unafraid to be different.
That was the greatest gift he could ever have given, the allowance, a bestowing of permission to be myself. It was ok to be 'not normal' my father was different; he wrote to me in verse all of his life. He created magic out of nothing. I've continuously made garments from old fabrics and second-hand finds, some displayed in incredible settings like the Winter Palace in Vienna, where my garments made out of old beautifully aged printed curtains, and scrubbed plastic vintage flowers, stood next to Dior and Chanel in a room full of gigantic gilt framed mirrors and chandeliers. When you have a task ahead without the requisite funding you find ways.
Photograph by Simon Armstrong
Rotor: If you met an extremely talented young designer who was struggling with self-doubt, what would you tell them?
PH: To keep believing and to not give up. Barriers are put in our way, sometimes we place them there ourselves. Self-doubt can be used positively, so stick with it, jump that obstacle by recognising its part of the artistic process, a sign that you know you have more to give, and that's an incredible challenge. To recognise you can go further is everything, it's a gift.
Photograph by Mariana Cattoir
Rotor: Have you experienced any inequalities in being a woman in the fashion industry?
PH: I’ve experienced many inequalities, whether by being female or not. I sometimes feel masculine in my approach and I rarely dress feminine, perhaps the irrelevance to my named gender has stood me in good stead, as I can be a formidable opponent to discriminate challenges.
Photograph by Simon Armstrong
Rotor: Do you think there is a north south divide in British fashion?
PH: Not sure what you mean by that, do you mean the territorial divide, or the haves and have nots, the complicity in the cliques, the favoritism, the deliberate closing of doors to outsiders? Yes, is the answer to all of the above.
Political-Text Artwork Series by Pam Hogg
Rotor: Is money the root of all evil?
PH: There is an abundance of money, and the evil that exists is gluttony. Storing instead of sharing wealth is in my eyes a sin, as is the misuse of financial power. One needs money to survive, more than just survive, but some cannot even feed themselves or their families. This is a well-known fact yet still the rich get richer and very few have the humility to see and act. We seem to be going backwards. This government and all across the world, their priorities are money led, with pretense at helping the less well off, but they keep on strangling, it's designed that way, and it will continue if not made accountable.
Photograph by Mariana Cattoir
Rotor: If you could dress three characters throughout history who would they be?
PH: Maybe Marlene Dietrich or Eartha Kitt. By history do you mean no longer alive..? Maybe the Evil Queen in Snow White, or Quentin Crisp, or Candy Darling. now u have me thinking :)
Rotor: Not many designers are also musicians and performers, what motivated you to take to the stage and front up a band?
PH: I’ve always had a voice, whether in music terms or in art. At the age of four I was singing Eartha Kitt songs on stage as my 'party piece'. Later on, I constantly dreamt of being in a band, eternally aching for someone to ask me but I was too shy, I didn’t think I could, I was always taught to wait to be asked. It took about 25 years for someone to say “can you sing?”.
Portrait by Mike Owen
Rotor: What do you get from performing on stage that you don’t get as a designer?
PH: It's all the same to me. I get to express myself in both mediums. I am my work, I am my performance, it's my way of communicating, whether in written songs and melodies that pour out of my head or images that evolve into garments.
Rotor: What are the common misconceptions about Pam Hogg?
PH: Most of all that I'm wealthy in cash terms, that I'm sorted in terms of being accepted by the establishment, that I have a huge team around me when I don't even have a personal assistant. There's an assumption that all of the above must apply or why would I be termed as "successful". Despite the misconceptions, I'm still doing what I want, it can of course be difficult and I'd rather have it otherwise, but no one tells me what to do, so I have that freedom. Success to me is still being relevant and in tune with the times, sometimes ahead of the times if you date my work.
