Carson Lovett is a true designer’s designer. For the California-raised, London-based creative director behind Lovett, there is nothing more exhilarating than a blank canvas. “I personally find the most joy in the making process,” he explains. “In challenging the mind to create something from nothing.”
After graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2023 with a degree in Fashion Design, Lovett launched his eponymous label in April this year. The brand’s debut campaign centred around a fluffy snowball cap that exuded old-school drama. Showcasing vintage flair and a penchant for theatrics, it was the perfect introduction to the rising label.
Recently, Lovett released its first Spring/Summer 2025 collection, encompassing thirty vibrant, high-octane looks that feel at once familiar and new. Here, you’ll find Pre-Raphaelite motifs, Victorian-era lacework, and retro silhouettes — all filtered through an ultra-contemporary lens. For Lovett, the past is inexplicably linked to the present: “To be very current and very now requires a sense of longing for newness combined with a nostalgic connection to the past.” Following the launch of his debut collection, we caught up with the designer to learn more about his kaleidoscopic creative practice.
Carson, you graduated from Central Saint Martins last year. What would you say was the most valuable lesson you learned during your time there as a student?
I learned a lot about something called a trauma bond. It’s like a bit of drama but add the tea. But primarily, I learned about what it looks like to work together on something and remove yourself from the equation. It’s not about me or you, it’s actually much more meaningful to focus on how to create something superior. My teachers Heather Sproat and Anna Nicole Ziesche really taught me to focus all of the chaotic creative energy I have within me and hone it into something connected and fluid. I owe them a great deal.
Tell me about Lovett. Who does it represent and what does it stand for?
Lovett represents a person that is growing up but isn’t quite ready to let go of their youth. It acts as an antidote to the grey and glib dress we see on the streets. I don’t like safe and easy. To me, it’s an exploration of moments in time that inspire a sense of wonder, humour, and positivity. It represents all the girls that didn’t quite fit in and those that claimed difference as their power. It’s for the ADHD generation, clothing to make you feel alive again.
Something that I find notable about your design practice is that it seems to transcend time and place. Your practice feels very current and very ‘now’, but your designs often reference art and design movements from the past — for example, 1960s hat silhouettes, or Victorian-era lacework, or Pre-Raphaelite symbols and motifs. I’m curious to hear more about your design inspirations and how you see them coalescing and converging in Lovett.
This is a wonderful compliment! I follow the excitement wherever it leads me. To be very current and very now requires a sense of longing for newness combined with a nostalgic connection to the past. Lovett’s Image Director, Lily Bling, and I work very closely together to create a language that’s true to our taste. We aren’t interested in the question: what is now? We try to respond to the feeling of living today. What questions are unanswered, what emotions need tending to? What do we find excitement in?
I think it’s obvious to everyone that fashion is inundated with designers creating without an apparent sense of purpose, perhaps that’s driven by monetary restraints. However, I want to bring pieces into the world that you won’t be able to get anywhere else, garments that really take thought. Pieces that will hopefully live a life and get trashed or destroyed, like us.
I think it’s obvious to everyone that fashion is inundated with designers creating without an apparent sense of purpose, perhaps that’s driven by monetary restraints. However, I want to bring pieces into the world that you won’t be able to get anywhere else, garments that really take thought. Pieces that will hopefully live a life and get trashed or destroyed, like us.
“Lovett represents all the girls that didn’t quite fit in and those that claimed difference as their power. It’s for the ADHD generation, clothing to make you feel alive again.”
As a creative, what qualities do you find yourself drawn to? What interests you or excites you in a work of art, or an item of clothing, or a design object?
Like others, I’m drawn to periods in art that employed ancient craft techniques to depict modern themes. For example, the Pre-Raphaelites painted Homeric themes that were used to comment on modern issues. We find this in theatre very often as well, in the modern adaptations of Shakespeare and so on. I think this fascination with contemporary reminds me of a [Giorgio] Agamben essay I read during my time at CSM. To paraphrase, that which is contemporary has in it an understanding of the events that shaped the modern social landscape, and comments on the collective sorrow and tragedy.
I learned that the real substance of change can’t be had from studying the starting point or the end point, but from understanding the tension and dissonance held within that change. So, my fascination isn’t about that which is modern, but about understanding the place in which you find yourself. For me, that’s found in a daily communion with god, in which he helps me design cute dresses.
I learned that the real substance of change can’t be had from studying the starting point or the end point, but from understanding the tension and dissonance held within that change. So, my fascination isn’t about that which is modern, but about understanding the place in which you find yourself. For me, that’s found in a daily communion with god, in which he helps me design cute dresses.
For the Spring/Summer 2025 collection, you collaborated with Stable Diffusion and Cyberclone AI to integrate ‘digital twin’ technology into the campaign. I’m very interested in this concept — it’s not really something that I’ve seen done before! Can you expand on why you wanted to work with AI in this way?
‘Synthetic nature’ is a phrase that often gets thrown around in the studio. It’s the idea of the artificial consuming nature, the GMOs we see in every grocery store are carefully modified to enhance more desirable attributes. There’s something about technology merged with nature that’s always seemed oddly close to home. I suppose that harkens back to the feeling of growing up in a small Twin Peaks-esque mountain town in California. Watching as the forest is burned down one fire at a time. What will replace it?
The digital twin technology was an exploration of this theme. Faces of people from around the world, friends and people that inspire us, mapped onto four different models that we photographed in London. It presented many challenges as the technology isn’t perfect. But I think it’s a great way for people from around the world to get paid for their likenesses while working remotely. AI saves on jet fuel so Taylor Swift can go to the grocery store.
The digital twin technology was an exploration of this theme. Faces of people from around the world, friends and people that inspire us, mapped onto four different models that we photographed in London. It presented many challenges as the technology isn’t perfect. But I think it’s a great way for people from around the world to get paid for their likenesses while working remotely. AI saves on jet fuel so Taylor Swift can go to the grocery store.
I have to ask you about Charli XCX. I was excited to see Lovett looks on stage at the Brat world tour. How did this all come about? What was it like working with Charli and her team?
Well, as a micro influencer with six thousand followers, I think that I was probably the first designer that Charli wanted to work with on this tour. Her team reached out halfway through my online release of S/S 2025. There are 365 days in bratosphere, and I knew that Charlice (a.k.a Charlene) would DM me for at least one hundred of those days. So, I got a message from Chris Horan and the ideas started flowing. It felt like working with a good friend. He put his full trust in our designs, suggestions, and point of view. A custom look was approved and in four days it was made to measure.
Are you someone who likes to work towards big milestones, or do you prefer to take things as they come?
I am a big milestones person. I plan things out at varying altitudes. There’s nothing more beautiful than a well-executed strategy. You can see that in Charli XCX’s album and tour release, I found it so satisfying! In the end, I think the best strategy is to focus on the excitement of dressing up, really making it about the clothes. Dressing is fun, playful, and creative. Everyone has that in them — but maybe they just haven’t felt like they had the license. It’s not even about selling clothes for me, it’s about feeling connected to something that you can bring along with you. Maybe it’ll be your lucky day.
Do you feel like your impressions of the industry have changed since leaving fashion school?
It’s always been my policy to let the good things come on their own. I know a lot of people love the social aspect of fashion and that’s great. I personally find the most joy in the making process; in challenging the mind to create something from nothing. Incorporating unrelated ideas into a larger narrative.
I remember watching the movie Field of Dreams when I was young. “If you build it, they will come,” they said. Build the world you want to see, and the right people will come your way. I believe in this.
I remember watching the movie Field of Dreams when I was young. “If you build it, they will come,” they said. Build the world you want to see, and the right people will come your way. I believe in this.
Finally, with 2024 almost behind us, what are your plans for the new year?
I’d love to get a BBL… and to release two more collections.
