St. Louis Magazine – July 2019

ēĐ stlmag.com July 2019 Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

SHOP TALK

See Drummond’s

designs at michael

drummond.net.

 F

ASHION DESIGNER MICHAEL

Drummond’s been busy

this year. In March, he was

selected as one of eight resi-

dents 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: His-

tory Never Looked So Haute,” bringing

together other former Project Runway

stars and local college students to re-

imagine textiles from the Missouri His-

torical Society’s collection. —MEGAN MERTZ

What are you working on now? I’m curat-

ing an exhibit with The Sheldon Art Gal-

leries 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 fash-

ion that hopefully communicates ideas or

causes you to think about various sub-

jects—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 conscien-

tious. 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 cre-

ate—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 communica-

tion we have with each other.

In-Demand Designer

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