Founded in 1949 by Bernard Gantmacher, American-Swedish luxury brand GANT is the perfect blend of casual American sportswear and refined European elegance. First finding success as a shirt making house after the war, GANT has found strength as a legacy fashion house through reinvention and maintained authenticity over the last 70 years.
This season GANT has partnered with Grammy award winning musician, writer, director and actor St. Vincent for a disco-ready capsule collection. Her real name Anne Erin Clark, the Oklahoma born artist has gained a reputation for her dynamic stage personas that correspond with her different album eras. Coinciding with 2021’s ‘Daddy’s Home’ album, this collaboration is rooted in a Warhol-esque 1970s New York sleaze. Evocative of hazy nights at Studio 54, this ten piece collaboration is oozes glam and rock ‘n’ roll.
Versatility is at the heart of this collection that perfectly blends preppy with the New York disco scene. Designed to be worn by everyone and anyone, a ten piece collection of blazers, retro pants, shorts, scarves, shirts and socks is available in an array of mis-matched colours and fits to build your own interpretation of 1970s glam.
Crafted from luxury materials such as silks and fine Italian wool, these bold, versatile pieces have been build to last the ages in your wardrobe.
“Working on a tour wardrobe for an American icon like St. Vincent is a dream come true for both GANT and me personally,” says GANT Creative Director, Christopher Bastin. “The versatility of the collection makes it light enough to tear up the stage and fancy enough to blow up any party!”
We sat down with St. Vincent to discuss the collaboration, Daddy’s Home and the inspirations behind it.
Sabrina Soormally: How did this collaboration with GANT come about?
Anne Clark: How did it come about? Oh, Avigail! I have an amazing stylist called Avigail Collins and she’s just the best. She and I put together the look for the ‘Daddy’s Home’ album, she was talking to GANT and they came up with the idea of putting together a capsule collection of some of the very ‘Daddy’ pieces, and then we got to collaborate together and it was so fun.
GANT: It was through her incredible stylist, Avigail Collins who happened to style her in a GANT suit from our collab with Luke Edward Hall, which she wore for her album promo. GANT’s Creative Director, Christopher Bastin saw this and that was actually where the relationship started. Following that organic connection we started talking and that is where the idea of the collab came from.
SS: You’re always really great at reinventing yourself with each era. How do you conceptualise your different stage personas and how did that lend itself to designing this collection?
AC: For me, the music always comes first, so I was working on music that was very inspired by sleazy, 70s, downtown New York. In my mind I always had these blonde heroines like Jenna Rollins and women under the influence, Candy Darling… in my head as a guiding light. But I wanted to present masculine-feminine, and really transform into this sort of ‘Daddy’ character. So that meant suits with wide legs and collars that splayed out over the suit jackets and this kind of much more relaxed sleazy, archetype I guess.
SS: So that touches on my next question, I was going to ask how you interpreted sleaze into this collection?
AC: One of the big things that we talked about with the sleaze was that in the 70s, putting low brow and high brow, and found pieces together for stores and all that. So we wanted to make like a suit and pants that didn’t match, so the idea that you could afford the pants, and you could afford a cool top but you didn’t have the money to buy the whole suit at the same time, so they’re different colours. Little details like that, there’s an interchangeable button, one that has my face on it and one that doesn’t, psychedelic scarves and shirts that can be worn as a dress, or as a shirt with the suit. It’s all deconstructed and mix and match, but all very comfortable and masculine-feminine.
SS: How would you define the entire ‘Daddy’s Home’ era?
AC: I’d say it’s like glamour with dirt under it’s fingernails.
SS: You’ve already mentioned how Candy Darling was an inspiration for the album, how did that carry through to this collaboration?
AC: I think what I find so inspiring about Candy is that she was the real American dream. She went to the city and completely reintvented herself. And even though she was from Queens, coming into Manhattan was like a world away, and she reinvented herself from top to bottom. A friend of mine was with her at her bedside when she passed away, and it will sound a little mystical but I felt like she was always in the room helping me write the record, and so the last song on the record, ‘Candy Darling’, was sort of saying ‘I know you have to leave now, thank you for visiting me, I know you’ve got to get back home’.
SS: You’re often described as a polymath, what inspires you to keep picking up new ventures like filmmaking, designing, I know you’ve done art curation in the past…
AC: Just that it’s all interesting to me, it’s all fun and I like jumping in the deep end and trying things that I don’t know if I can do. That’s where you find the most of it, you know they say the sweetest fruit is on the limb. I just try to get out there.
SS: Where do you feel most at home, other than in music?
AC: I can apply the same creative instincts in areas that aren’t just music, but also the same willingness and love of collaborating, so I don’t feel threatened by other people’s ideas, I feel inspired by them and that’s why I love doing things like this GANT collaboration, because it was a collaboration.
SS: You just played Glastonbury, how did it feel to be back on a festival stage?
AC: So exciting! I’ve missed it so much, I’ve missed playing live so much. I did get to tour for the Daddy’s Home era, but I wish I could tour it for another two years it’s just so fun. Playing with these musicians is so fun, the band is so great. I feel freeer than I’ve ever felt in life and on stage.
SS: What did you enjoy the most about working with GANT?
AC: They’re all just lovely. Everyone on the team is lovely, I always say don’t work with people you wouldn’t want to go to dinner with, and I stand by that. Everyone of the team is lovely, they were amicable to our ideas, and it’s really good quality stuff. The pieces will last you forever, it’s not fast fashion, it’s really, really well made.
SS: What do you have coming up for the rest of the year?
AC: I’ll be playing an arena tour with Roxy Music, which I’m very excited about, and I’m always working on the next thing, so I’ll be working on more music.
GANT x St. Vincent is available now.
