Meet Steve O Smith, the Designer Turning Childhood Sketches Into Couture Dreams

For W’s annual The Originals portfolio, we asked stars of film, fashion, art, music, and more to share their insights on staying true to themselves. See this year’s full class of creatives here.

Since launching your brand in 2022, you’ve dressed Harry Styles, Cate Blanchett, and Eddie Redmayne. When did you discover your love for sketching and design?

I think I’ve been drawing since I was about 2. It was the best way to shut me up at a restaurant. When I was 3 years old, I was sitting next to an artist on a flight, and she told my mum to put me in art classes. So I’ve always drawn. My family says that when I was 3 or 4, I would notice if someone changed their curtains or hairstyle. My dad’s mum was also a dressmaker, so I used to spend a bit of the summer up in Liverpool observing her.

You got your undergraduate degree at the Rhode Island School of Design before moving on to a master’s at Central Saint Martins. The latter is where you found your signature style, right?

My first few months at CSM were online, so there was a lot of communicating in 2D. I think at some point, I just found this connection with the drawings I was making. Drawing has always been a really big part of my creative process, so when I had to make a pre-collection, I tried painting on the clothes, which didn’t really look good at all. My tutor said to me, “You need to start cutting. You need to start drawing your patterns like you do on paper.” So I did that all summer. Then I got Covid and I had to self-isolate in my flat, which was incredibly boring, so I was just cutting fabric the whole time. I ran out of fabric and wasn’t able to leave to get more, so I started using the scraps. It turned into a form of collage where I was sewing the scraps down at the same speed I made marks on paper. That was the first time the boundary properly broke down for me. I started thinking about cutting, draping, and sewing as extensions of the drawing process itself.

In 2022, you presented your graduate collection for Central Saint Martins, which featured heavy use of primary colors. Since then, you’ve worked only in black and white. Do you plan to reintroduce color?

After graduating, I took a 10-week life drawing class at the Royal Drawing School. I wanted to loosen up because my style had become very illustrative, and I knew that if I was going to keep doing this, my drawings on paper needed to get better, or at least a bit more free and interesting. It was in class that I realized there are so many things I want to do, so it felt necessary to place some limitations on myself. That’s where I came into this monochrome world. Life drawing is monochrome. It’s not about color; it’s about mark making. So right now everything has been about gesture, and I hope to move into tone after a while.

What is your process like?

I’ll draw for a few weeks and make thousands of sketches. It’s a storage ­nightmare. Some of those will make it into the collection, but there are a lot that I haven’t even delved into yet.

What are your plans for the business side of Steve O Smith?

I consider the clothes I make to be drawings in their own right. So it’s important for me that not too many exist and they don’t end up on sale at T.J. Maxx. I think my outlook has massively changed on what a brand is, and I don’t even necessarily think of what I do as a brand as much as a practice. I’m speaking to some stores about working with their private shoppers, because I think that’s a really interesting way of doing retail. I actually did that with Dover Street ­Market New York this season.

What is it like to see your work on celebrities?

Sort of surreal. What’s amazing about the celebrity experience is it’s a really good way of communicating a direct-to-consumer model, because you’re literally making this piece for one person. There’s a lot to be said for getting to know a client and customizing the garment to them. It’s really rewarding. There’s almost something ­old-school couture about that relationship.

Grooming by Bjorn Krischker for By Terry at The Wall Group; Photo Assistants: Anna Sophia John, Isabel MacCarthy.