As one of the most exciting designers currently rising out of London, Matty Bovan is doing things differently. Not content with just sending his creations down the runway each season, he’s spent the last few years creating his own parallel universe via a series of surreal zines, short films, and editorial shoots. In Bovan’s world, twisted porn stars and goblin-like housewives roam alongside medieval ‘breadmen’ – but he’s not finished there.
Now, Bovan releases his third zine, Beautiful Teddy, which centres around logos and the logomania fashion finds itself gripped by right now. It’s a topic he’s long been interested in, given his the creature at the centre of his own brand’s markings: “I always wanted a logo that was more than text, that became something in its own right,” he explains. “At the time I was really interested in cave paintings, primordial animals… It’s very simple really: it has four legs, two ears, two eyes, and I think it’s really cute. I love the ambiguity of it. People see all sorts of animals in the logo.”
Having teamed up with regular collaborator Lucy Alex Mac and Bryony Walsh on the photography and Charlie Murray on make-up – as well as set designer Rory Mullen – the Beautiful Teddy sees a bunch of Bovan’s friends and family take the spotlight in pretty dramatic fashion. “I’m interested in characters having a dramatic moment on camera, be it a smile or some sort of movement,” says Bovan. “There’s a lot of joy in this zine: we shot three solid days back-to-back, shooting at the same time in the same space with two photographers. It was very much a collaborative process with friends and I’m very grateful we had those moments.”
Alongside the zine, the designer also launches his first ever shoppable website, on which you can pick up your own limited edition copy or one of his screen-printed t-shirts or sweatshirts, along with a series of stickers and pin badges. Again, though, that’s only the beginning: “We’re deffo going to be launching more one-off knits and rare Matty Bovan pieces, which to me is really exciting,” the designer confirms. Keep your eyes peeled for further drops, and check out a number of images from Beautiful Teddy above.
