I first met Pam Hogg in my early 20s at an after-hours lock-in in Soho. I’d already seen her on the quilt of i-D and I believed she was the good individual, much more so once I discovered she’d made the catsuit that Woman Miss Kier from Deee-Lite was sporting in “Groove is within the Coronary heart.”
The one factor that hit me about Pam in that first assembly was how variety she was. I used to be a scholar and she or he indulged me. So she wasn’t solely variety and funky, she was additionally in all probability very affected person with me. I liked her from that second.
Vogue is a really totally different beast now. Commerce dominates creativity, and folks like Pam, who’re one hundred pc the latter, usually get missed, which is why I believe it’s important that we have fun how she managed to create her personal prophetic symbiosis between style and music. It wasn’t merely that she may sing her Scottish lungs out when she was in entrance of her band. She additionally dressed stars like Debbie Harry and Siouxsie Sioux. And the folks she acquired to stroll in her present! I keep in mind dance superstars Michael Clark and Les Little one on her catwalk.
Seeing the outpouring of emotion on Instagram after her loss of life, it’s apparent that Pam knew everybody and everybody liked her. She lit up any room she walked into along with her enthusiasm and vitality, and now it’s apparent how a lot vitality it actually took to maintain her life and work. I’ve been wanting again at her collections, realising how a lot work went into them and in addition appreciating – actually appreciating – the way it was all her. She actually did all the pieces herself, like a one girl band who simply saved on going it doesn’t matter what.
It took me some time to essentially grasp that.
When she requested for assistance on just a few reveals, I used to be pleased to assist her, give her cash for materials or no matter she wanted. You needed to assist somebody whose integrity was so ferocious within the face of an trade which by no means actually knew what to do with somebody like her. I believe that’s another excuse she was so liked, together with the truth that these garments she was making on her personal had been usually so great.
That’s why I really feel so honoured by Pam’s final request to me. When she acquired very sick, she requested to see me. I knew that she’d saved her state of affairs very quiet so I wasn’t certain what to anticipate. It was unhappy to see her so frail when she had at all times been a lot bigger than life, however she was nonetheless in some way radiant. What she requested me to do was to organise and pack up her studio, and retailer her archive on behalf of her household. In my different life, I’ve curated my very own very complete assortment of London style, so Pam and her household may make certain her legacy could be within the most secure of palms.
I knew it could be the final time I noticed her. As heartbreaking as that was, I may additionally see how pleased she was to know that the work she had given all the pieces to could be safe. I’m usually reluctant to fulfill my heroes, however Pam was one thing else. To me, and lots of others, she’ll at all times be a superhero.
