Photo by Kevin A. Roberts
Fashion designer Michael Drummond’s been busy this year. In March, he was selected as one of eight residents of the Saint Louis Fashion Fund’s new Fashion Lab program. A few weeks later, Drummond and fellow Project Runway alum Laura Kathleen Baker co-chaired the inaugural “Threads: History Never Looked So Haute,” bringing together other former Project Runway stars and local college students to re-imagine textiles from the Missouri Historical Society’s collection.
What are you working on now? I’m curating an exhibit with The Sheldon Art Galleries that will be opening in October. I have my first solo exhibition at the World Chess Hall of Fame that same month, called “Being Played.” It ties in chess, and I’m working with the ideas of climate change and fashion and community. So, I’m very busy with all those things—and I just bought a house! I’m restoring it, and I feel like I’m losing my mind.
Are you still creating your own line? Art-based fashion—creating conceptual fashion that hopefully communicates ideas or causes you to think about various subjects—is my direction these days. I still have the line, but it’s very low-impact. Fashion is one of the most polluting industries in the world. The people who love to get dressed are my people, but I think it’s exciting to also be conscientious. It’s great to open your closet and see things you’ve owned for 15 years and still think, “God, this is my favorite thing!” Those are the pieces I try to create—the little soldiers in your closet.
Why do you love fashion? I’ve always found fashion to be really exciting. Even for the person who says they don’t care, that’s just not true. You have to put on clothes. Even the couch potato is expressing their tribe. Whether you like it or not, fashion is one of the first forms of communication we have with each other.
