FASHION

Interview by Vanessa Gerrie

“For us, fashion is our choice of discipline to express our creativity, say things we want to say.” – Hinny Tran, Fred Hates Fashion Creative Director.

The fashion industry’s turbulent nature can often lead to perceptions of a hostile, cold environment. For those that love it, it can be heartbreakingly hard to catch a break. Luckily there are people creating innovative ways to crack the fashion industry’s shell to expose the expansive talent beneath. Hinny Tran and Stephanie Ferraro, of subversive platform Fred Hates Fashion, are two of those people.

Hinny Tran created Fred Hates Fashion (FHF) nearly three years ago in response to his “uninspiring” first exposure to the inner workings of a traditional runway show. Hinny comments, “It was really exciting, but it was such a letdown because the organisers [...] didn’t even know the designers’ names, and everyone was just a number, and I guess I felt a bit defensive in a way, I felt it was my duty to stand up for these like-minded people”. Now FHF creates independent multimedia runway spectacles that put the designers’ creativity first. “Our goal is to firstly find and uncover all of the design talent out there […] and then what we would do is partner them up with other creatives,” states Steph Ferraro, the managing director.

The name lends itself to a love/hate relationship with the fashion industry. “It’s really about hating it because you love it so much, like you can’t stop […] It became fashion film meets runway because I was starting out as a filmmaker at the time and I just thought, ok what better way to combine all the things that I liked at that moment,” Hinny states. The collective simmers under the façade of the fashion industry, subverting people’s perspectives of its current landscape through diverse presentations and narrative branding. “I guess we really have a chip on our shoulder, I won’t deny that” Hinny confesses, “we weren’t ashamed of saying how broke we were or the problems we had because I feel like in a professional environment we are forced so often to cover that part of ourselves, everyone around us was experiencing the same problems”.

Speaking about the latest FHF happening, the exhibition The Dark Social, Hinny comments that the idea stemmed from a multitude of personal experiences, including his own aesthetic, “I’m just a dark person in general, and aesthetically, I love darkness, it’s seductive”; however, it also alludes to an experience of a city blackout, “as soon as those lights went out, suddenly we all had to do something together, we had to help each other in the darkness. That lack of light lends more to your imagination and helps you realise how much you need other people, and how much you can really share when you are experiencing the same thing”. This analogy crosses over perfectly to the ethos of Fred Hates Fashion. The Dark Social celebrated the designers and artists they had worked with over the past three years. It was a space for everyone to come together and have a good time, while looking at the amazing work they had created together.

Collaboration instigates creativity and in a fashion climate so reliant on branding, FHF have their brains firmly plugged into the future. “I could give you an indication of what we are planning now, but I can tell you, it will completely change when it actually comes round to executing it. We try and keep it very natural in terms of what we produce and what we create. I would love to see the industry move more into a convergence of art and fashion, just finding more creative ways to brand their products.” Steph states.

What do they love about fashion? Hinny sees “fashion as our connection to reality…you can make someone smile really easily with a piece of fashion. It brings people together, it’s almost like it’s a symbolic representation or kind of logical representation of your life.” While Steph loves the aesthetic and process: “pieces that you look at and you can just see the love that was put into it, it’s very considered […] we definitely support designers who put love and passion to their work as opposed to fast fashion that’s just pumped out”.

What they hate? “There’s definitely a lot of ego within the fashion industry, I feel like that’s a really general stereotype but a lot of the time it’s pretty true.” Steph comments, but breaking down these stereotypes is exactly what they are about. Hinny states, “it can fool a lot of people, it’s very deceiving […] because it’s also economically profitable, I think people are scared of it because it is misrepresented [but] if you use fashion right, as your choice of means to communicate, it is an absolutely powerful tool”.

Keep up to date with the evolution of FHF here and read Vanessa’s review of The Dark Social here.