Samuel Ross, anti-fashion upstart selling US$125+ T-shirts, reflects on his street wear label A Cold Wall’s rapid rise
Young British designer often hailed for ‘rags-to-riches’ rise from provincial public housing estate sees his clothing as social commentary and its success as built on not being retail-friendly. He’s working on making it less pricey
Samuel Ross is a man in a hurry. The 26-year-old British designer, artist, music scorer and entrepreneur went into business in early 2015 and has quickly built up a mini empire including the critically lauded conceptual street wear label, A Cold Wall, which opened its first Hong Kong pop-up store in Sheung Wan last week.
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“I wanted to bring back a sense of risk to a retail space. My idea is for a sensory experience to better reflect some of the washes and textures in the clothing,” says Ross.
“It’s been pretty quick,” says Ross about his rise in the fashion world, but he’s more interested in communicating ideas than starting trends.
A graduate with a first class degree in graphic and industrial design, Ross’ interests have always veered towards the intellectual and an attempt to reflect the aspects of the culture and environment he grew up in particularly London’s increasingly influential grime scene.
“I’m trying to make it more accessible by offering more products at a lower price, things like stationery, socks and other accessories. The 15-year-old me would have been attracted to and interested in what I am doing but I wouldn’t have been able to afford it, so there is a need to close that gap in price,” he says.
“There was this story that I was customising Nikes in my teens and selling them to my friends and on council estates. That’s not true, I was selling counterfeits.”
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Ross has since collaborated with Nike and his immediate future and success looks assured as A Cold Wall’s following grows and larger brands line up to work with him. Despite the rapid success, Ross says the clothing line is still in the “start-up” phase and his main focus, but in the future he would like to be as well known for other things. “I want to be known as much for architecture and industrial design. It’s just finding the time.”
A Cold Wall pop-up runs until September 10 at Juice (The Box), 18A-B Tai Ping Shan St, Sheung Wan