David Bradshaw’s CV reads like a music-slash-fashion powerhouse bible. The stylist, fashion editor and creative consultant worked his way across campaigns and creative direction roles for the likes of Jil Sander, Calvin Klein and Versace in the early to mid 1990s, eventually grounding his talent under Prada’s roof from 1997 to 2004 and, as he explains, picking up a few key lessons from Miuccia along the way. On the beats side there was the video clip for Madonna’s Rain in 1992, and of course working with Michael and Janet Jackson on the 1995 short film Scream, the monochrome sci-fi spectacular that still ranks as the most expensive music clip of all time. Those PVC trousers and spiked shibori crop tops? Bradshaw on his finest game.

That his education started in engineering proves such a roll-call surprising – until you hear how this kick-start gave him the strategic head to manoeuvre between different sized projects via the same vivid ideas.

‘Play for Today’ editorial in Arena Homme Plus, David Sims / David Bradshaw, 1996. Bradshaw: “This is my first editorial with Sims, our model Luca was a homeless migrant he’d met on a street somewhere, the story an early insight into Sims’ genius”

This dynamic skill is being applied in Bradshaw’s current project reinventing Versus Versace and most strongly in his his latest endeavour, Huntergather, the fashion retailing concept he co-founded with Chris Bailey. Luxury wardrobe staples combine with exclusive pieces with decisive twists, the result of collaborations with like-minded brands such as shoe label Grenson. The fit-out at the Marylebone flagship fully reflects the Huntergather creed, curtains masquerading as walls allowing for a constantly shifting space, the space able to be changed at a whim. Most transfixing though are the career mementos Bradshaw has spread across its walls and furnishings: a Prada Sport campaign or a David Sims editorial here, the original fax asking Bradshaw to style Scream there…

Here, the creative reflects on a career that keeps on evolving and the lessons that will fuel his next step.

Tempe Nakiska: Your work as a stylist over the years has been so varied and you must have such a large archive of references and mementos. How do you approach curating that as you have for Hunter Gather?
David Bradshaw: In my profession, there is nobody really around to tell you where you go from being ‘a stylist’. So Huntergather is set up as a way of defining myself within this world, this industry. The archive you see in the store reflects the archive in my head, all the experiences I’ve had and exhibitions and films and everything else I’ve seen that makes up the creative mind.

TN: When did you begin to appreciate all that information?
DB: It wasn’t until I started working at Prada. It was Miuccia who really encouraged me to see something in everything. Prada is a big company now but when I started there it wasn’t. Prada as a small, young company already had a degree of influence. There was always something about the way Miuccia expressed herself that impacted on people, particularly people within the fashion industry.

TN: There are images from a campaign you did early on for Prada, the models all dressed in white in the desert…
DB: It was one of the earliest Prada Sport campaigns. During the seven and a half years I was at Prada, Prada Sport was launched and I was charged with helping to craft what it was about. That campaign was rather epic…

Prada campaign, Phil Poynter / David Bradshaw, 2001

Prada campaign, Phil Poynter / David Bradshaw, 2001. Campaign in situ at Tottenham Court Road Station. 

TN: Yes it was! Yet you also have worked on many smaller projects. How do you translate a bigger concept to a smaller project and vice versa?
DB: It’s all about the idea. If it’s a great idea then it’s still great with only a small amount of money to present it with. Same at Huntergather, we are working with small budgets. But I love when you can have an impact with something you’ve done on a shoestring. It’s also important that you’re able to do that because things are so immediate these days.

TN: How does that relate to your work?
DB: I go from the store and will take a few images of a new t-shirt design on my phone and upload it to the blog and tomorrow I might be styling a new Versace campaign for exactly the same audience. I can be as excited about my own product as another company’s campaign, because again it comes down to a brilliant idea.

TN: Can more constraints make a project more creative?
DB: I do think so, yes. We’ve all heard stories about companies that have come and gone despite huge investment. So I do know that money isn’t the only thing that creates success. It’s necessary but a great idea with little money is much better than a bad idea with lots of money thrown at it!

TN: What memento would you pick from the store’s archive that really stands out in your life?
DB: I have amazing memories of the Prada shoot in the desert we were talking about and in store I have the prints up on the wall and photographs of the set, then a photograph of a huge poster that appeared on Tottenham Court Road when the campaign broke, so it’s the process from start to finish.

Nick Cave photographed at Bradshaw’s house in Hackney by Donald Christie, 1996. Bradshaw: “I’d just bought the house and hadn’t moved in so it was empty bar a few pieces of basic furniture and a boom box. Cave brought along a CD that he insisted was the only music played all day – ‘Jesus Blood (never failed me yet)’ by Gavin Bryers”

The original fax asking Bradshaw to style Michael and Janet Jackson for the short film ‘Scream’, directed by Mark Romanek, 1995. Bradshaw: “An incredible experience”

Polaroids, Michael and Janet Jackson wearing Dexter Wong in fittings with David Bradshaw at the Mondrian Hotel, LA, for the short film ‘Scream’, directed by Mark Romanek, 1995. Bradshaw: “An incredible experience”

TN: You also worked in music, briefly, and one huge one in particular…
DB: I got to do some great videos, one of which was the biggest video of all time, so big it was called a short film, Scream. I worked with Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson and obviously it was an incredible experience. The mementos there start with the original fax I got from the director asking me if I was available to do the job. It’s an artefact in itself! Faxes and Polaroids are a thing of the past yet there are Polaroids of my fittings with Michael and Janet. I now meet young people who cite it as their favourite video of all time!

TN: I’ll admit that I’m amongst them.
DB: [Laughs] Yes!

TN: Finally, what other archives do you keep?
DB: The archive for me is a real physical thing. I have a clothes archive that goes back a very long time and involves pieces from all the companies and campaigns I have worked for and on. And then of course there is my pictures archive, my magazine archive, my furniture and artefact archive. The store is a vessel for one archive of many experiences.

Huntergather, 68 Wigmore St, London W1U 2SD