Matthew Miller is carving out his own oeuvre in London. Built from military and utility, upscaled in leather and finer fabrics, his vision sees men and women standing together, a parade of pride and rebellion for those that have got more going on than living to please a clique. Ideas of art, destroy to create and manifesto reoccur.

Matthew Miller SS15

“I’ve been thinking heavily about war and conflict at the moment,” says Miller, “and studying body armour and flak jackets. My favourite is a particular French military piece from 1994 which was designed to protect the upper body from IEDs – it’s an incredible piece of design. I’ve been thinking in about the role of a soldier and the psychological effects of being conditioned by the establishment.

There’s an incredible amount of conflict in world at the moment. I can’t seem to get away from it. I’ve been really thinking about the solider in three periods – before the conflict, during the conflict and after the conflict. Three very different periods. I first of all wanted to tackle them all in one collection, but don’t have the resources or the time so I decided to tackle the issues of the post war soldier, life after the war.

The collection is very utilitarian. It references armour in two very distinct senses and asks the question of what is masculine armour in the modern world as well as where are the real battles happening?

I honestly don’t know how I come across [uprisings, movements, and subcultures rippling beneath the surface]. I think it has a lot to do with me being an outsider, looking for something to be a part of – searching for an answer.

I’ve been listening a lot to Sohn, The Amazing Snakeheads and Bill Ryder-Jones recently. Design wise there’s nothing really to be done, though I still have an awful lot to do. It’s an incredibly short season and I’m really feeling the pressure after the success of last season’s collection, The Politics of Me.”

Matthew Miller presents his SS15 collection on Sunday 15th June. Stay tuned to HERO for full fashion week coverage, from London, Florence, Milan and Paris