"Steve O Smith 's east London studio is a blank canvas. Or, more fittingly, an empty page. Because, since his graduation from Central Saint Martins' MA course almost four years ago, the young British designer has made a name for himself primarily by making drawings, in both a conventional and highly unconventional sense. Based on original sketches - thousands - by Smith himself, his clothes are startling for their illustrative lines, like pencil strokes brought incongruously yet literally into three dimensions around the body."
"For Smith, there is no barrier between paper and person, though. "I'm not making something that resembles a drawing," he says. "It is the drawing. It exists. Just because it's in fabric doesn't invalidate its origin or what it is.""
"There's nothing unique about wearing drawings, in theory at least. It's what fashion designers have always done, especially in the golden age of haute couture, when clients would often order clothes from the expressive sketches known in French as croquis. At least, that was the case until the 21st century, when the advent of digital imaging, mood boards and, latterly, AI generation tools has meant those methods have often superseded the humble hand-drawn sketch as a point of origin for the clothes we wear."
"Smith's process, however, is different. Every aspect of fashion is, in his words, "mark-making": he compares the taut fabric of an embroidery tambour to a stretched canvas - "How's that different from making a painting, really?""
Steve O Smith’s east London studio is described as a blank canvas. Since graduating from Central Saint Martins, he has built his reputation by making drawings that become clothes. His garments are based on thousands of original sketches, translated into illustrative lines that appear like pencil strokes rendered in three dimensions around the body. He rejects the idea that the clothing merely resembles drawings, stating that the drawing exists as the fabric form. The piece contrasts this approach with fashion’s historical use of croquis and with modern methods like digital imaging, mood boards, and AI tools. Smith frames all fashion elements as mark-making, comparing embroidery tambour fabric to a stretched canvas and likening it to painting.
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