Meet The Irish Designer Who Shaped The Aesthetic Of Brat Summer

When the face-time call connected, Timothy smiled on a glitching, pixillated screen. Apologising and laughing about the ‘shit wifi’ and walking around his friend’s New York apartment to find signal, Gibbons finally settled by a window with the phone held slightly above his head to keep the connection, ‘this should be better now’, he said. Life’s been pretty crazy for Gibbons over the past few months, aside from his own brand, he’s been assistant designing for rising NYC knitwear star Gabe Gordon, but Gibbons is thriving with the variety of experience.

“I love having my fingers in a lot of different pies. You learn more, and you can flex different muscles. The most nightmarish thing to me ever would be to be stuck in the same job for over half a year, let alone multiple years. My mom’s worked in the same office for 25 years, it’s insane. I love having the ability to travel and do all these different projects and get different sources of inspiration, because my brain requires a lot of stimuli.”

“I haven’t lost my accent, thank god.”

Gibbons left Belfast at 18 and now lives between New York and London, where he studied at Central Saint Martins. “I haven’t lost my accent, thank god. A lot of people do do it when they come to London, but I’m so glad I haven’t, because it benefits you whenever you like to leave the UK, everybody’s obsessed.” Gibbons knew as a young child in Belfast that he wanted to create clothing and characters. “I was such a Halloween head. I let used to go through the fancy dress box every day and dress up. I was actually telling somebody this the other day: I used to convince all the kids on our street to go out trick or treating in the middle of summer. I wanted to dress up and dress everybody else up. I’ve always known that that’s what I was into.”

Gibbons cites Vivienne Westwood, Thierry Mugler and costume designers Sandy Powell and Colleen Atwood as some of the biggest influences on his work. Glancing over the dramatic cinched waist of the oversized hoodie, it’s evident that his designs reference both the exaggerated femininity of the traditional corset, as well as the more androgynous, oversized, and comfortable elements of modern streetwear.  “I’ve always straddled fashion and costume, with more theatrical and historical references. I’ve been making corsets for a couple years. I’m just into them, there’s a reason they’ve stayed staples of dress for centuries. Obviously, I’m not the first person to dip into that pool, most clever designers know to look backwards … One of the books I use religiously is called The Cut Of Women’s Clothing, and it was famously one of Vivienne Westwood’s favourite books; she talked about it in her autobiography.” 

“Most clever designers know to look backwards”

The idea for the corset hoodie came while Gibbons was working in a friends studio in New York, and had just bought a hoodie from a second-hand shop. “I was in New York two years ago, and I was broke as shit. I just was like: Wait, why don’t I do a corset in the hoodie? I had done the rugby shirts before as a couple of one offs, and then I did the hoodies and they completely exploded by word of mouth in New York.”

In a Nylon article published last month, fashion writer Kevin LeBlanc broke down why, in an age of fleeting micro-trends, corset hoodies have only been growing and reaching peak popularity over this summer. “But why are the streets telling me that, a year later, the craze is still going strong? My gut instinct tells me that Charli XCX, the unofficial queen of summer 2024, might have something to do with it.” LeBlanc then goes on to cite Charli’s infamous Partygirl DJ sets in central and south America… with bespoke corset hoodies designed by none other than, (you guessed it), Timothy Gibbons.

“It never gets old getting to dress somebody that you’re a fan of”

“I got one to Charli about a year and a half ago, and then we had just kept in touch. This year, her stylist hit me up about doing a couple for the shows in June. So it’s pretty sick… I mean, “pretty sick” is an understatement – It was an incredible experience being involved with probably the most influential album campaign of this generation. So I can’t believe I got to be a wee part of that.

This moment was particularly special for Gibbons as he’s been a fan of Charli for over a decade. “It never gets old getting to dress somebody that you’re a fan of. Charli’s Sucker album was one of the first records I bought after passing my driving test in 2014, I used to play it on loop. I mean, I’m from East Belfast. Nobody paid my way in to these spaces or handed me these working relationships. I’ve worked hard for what I have, and I’ve been very lucky along the way as well. So it just feels nice to take a step back sometimes and text my wee brother who is still at school in Belfast. He’s like: “Oh my God, my friends can’t believe that you dressed Charli, or my friends can’t believe Ice Spice is wearing your hoodie” or whatever. That’s how I try to keep grounded.”

“I mean, I’m from East Belfast. Nobody payed my way in to these spaces or handed me these working relationships.”

Gibbons designed three separate, custom, pieces for her: one for 3 different DJ shows around the globe. Instead of the typical varsity lettering across the chest of the cult-favourite New York hoodies, Gibbons included the names of each city Charli played in the brat font, spelled out using diamanté crystals. “We wanted to go gaudy, and very raver with the colours, with diamantés all over of course.”

As with many small, independent designers, whose originality and handmade designs contribute to the zeitgeist in some way, the fast fashion vultures soon start circling. Just two weeks after designing the first New York hoodie, an online fast fashion giant had ripped it off and were selling a direct version for as little as $15. “I hadn’t even set up a website or anything at that point, just posted a couple of pictures. It was insane”

Sadly as an independent designer, there’s little that can be done to fight mass production, but that doesn’t bother Gibbons too much right now. Despite big press moments, like Charli’s sets, causing a mass influx of almost-unmanageable orders for Gibbons to make solo, keeping things small scale isn’t a negative thing. “I would never like to be completely divorced from garments that I’m selling. I make clothes because I enjoy the practice of creating something from scratch with my hands, it’s an artistic and meditative practice for me.

“I would never like to be completely divorced from garments that I’m selling.”

It’s very hard for young designers to break into the chain of like industrial production. But for me personally, I don’t know if I’d want to go there soon anyway. I think keeping things small scale, and still having enough to live off means I can feel really creatively fulfilled by what I’m doing. That’s the goal at the minute. That might change. [he laughs] Maybe I’ll become really greedy soon, apparently everything changes at 30.”

Creating and designing independently is challenging, but for Gibbons it’s a price worth paying for ultimate creative freedom and connection to the garments. “Huge fashion houses nowadays absorb younger talent into them and ultimately remain as these multi million conglomerates that like are less and less radical or creative in their output by the day. It’s like they need to clear the competition. There needs to be so much more investment in the smaller brands being allowed to do what they want to do. I actually don’t give a fuck about the big brands. You could never catch me looking at a Chanel show.”

“I actually don’t give a fuck about the big brands. You could never catch me looking at a Chanel show.”

Authenticity is what’s closest to Gibbons’s creative vision “I’d much rather be inspired by coming to New York and seeing all these people my age that are barely getting by, having two or three jobs on the side all to fund work that makes them feel fulfilled.”

Coming back to the incredible summer of recognition and endorsement Gibbons has had, I asked what was next. “Truthfully, Charli wearing [my corset hoodies] has felt like a big finale to them. For a lot of last year, whenever the film industry was on strike, that was my bread and butter. People were buying them, and I was able to live off of something that I was making with my hands. There’s a couple 100 people around the world wearing something that I made with my own hands, then 1000s of other people who have seen it. It’s pretty mad, but I’m ready for the next thing.

“There’s a couple 100 people around the world wearing something that I made with my own hands, then 1000s of other people who have seen it. It’s pretty mad, but I’m ready for the next thing.”

Gibbons is planning on releasing a collection at some point in 2025, “it’s really exciting and inspired by my time in New York and the collaborative relationship with my friend [Gabe Gordon] here. “I still feel connected to that 11 year old that had a poster of Times Square on my bedroom wall in Belfast. Now I get to call this city my home to an extent. I don’t want to ever lose that perspective. Hopefully the next big idea will present itself soon enough. Until then the plan’s just to keep making beautiful clothes, I love making clothes! That’s kind of it.”