Douglas Stewart

And I thought, oh, I'm never going to get a job because I'm maybe a little too melancholy.

And suddenly the Calvin Klein team came through and they said, this is minimalism.

I remember it's the end of the 90s.

And they said, would you like to come to New York?

And I had no family home.

I had nothing to go back to Scotland for.

And so I said, yeah.

And I've been here now almost 30 years.

Yeah, I think, you know, starting in my childhood, I realised that clothes are always deeply psychological and we're always projecting something, who we want to be and at the same time maybe concealing who we are or what's really going on in our lives.

I've written actually in the past about my character seeing someone at university or in college who is wearing very shabby clothes, things they've bought in a second-hand store or, you know, old tweeds or old wax jackets.

And as a working-class kid,

My character says, you know, it's a dream altogether to be able to wear clothes that look like you don't care.

Because, you know, in the working class, you're always sort of projecting an aura, I think.

And so clothes I've always found to be deeply psychological.

And when I start writing a character, I think about what don't they like about themselves?

What are they trying to hide?

What is ill-fitting?

Because my own relationship with clothing has always been emotional.

It's not just get dressed in the morning and go out.

It's