More powerfully dark than ever, the latest collection by Miami-born London-based designer, Gabriella Marina González, represents a new display of the most sinister poetry, a fresh twist to the most hard-core drama. In the apocalyptic scene that Gabriella describes the Cyclops is a giant with an eye not in his forehead but in his heart so that this is the only way he can see further than the rest, through all the darkness and all the greed, further away from the world crumbling around him. Leather masks and harnesses with metallic rivets, sky-high wedges and loose knits give shape to The Cyclops Apprentice, her proposal for next summer.

Dazed Digital: How did it all start?
Gabriella Marina González: I went to an American high school specialized in Arts. I wasn't an academic by any means. Common sense, yes, but Math was not my thing. I consider myself a pro at things one can't learn at school. I was to busy waiting for puberty to be over to worry about Algebra. Then I was accepted to St. Martins and it was further away from Miami than New York was so I said 'clean slate' and didn't really care that I would be paying back loans till I was 40. Then I graduated from St. Martins, surprisingly, because I'm pretty sure all my classmates and tutors thought I was a nut job and a non-treat because I was only ever competing with myself. I created myself a small piece of underdog heaven.

DD: Hence your style, how would you describe it?
Gabriella Marina González: Discount sportswear meets monster truck rally dandy assault victim. 

DD: Where do you find inspiration?
Gabriella Marina González: I never know how or when it's going to come and when it does it's sometime hard to decide. Like dreams, only flashes, then blurs and it's up to me to recreate point A to point B and try and materialize a feeling I can't quite put my finger on. 

DD: What is your latest S/S 11 collection about?
Gabriella Marina González: We have become separated and numb to even our self-created perception of reality. The world turns on a delicate axis and we believe all is calm. The walls crumble yet we remain bellyful and oblivious, inactive, unaffected. We have lost touch with peace. We have lost touch with our energy. Our souls’ lights flicker and fade in the dusk of a shopping mall car park sunrise. All is lost. Rekindle your love with all. For what is felt but not understood. We survive but we do not live. We are but animals disattached from instinct. Our faces and hands stained with greed. See with your heart not with your eyes. 

DD: It seems you are focusing here in knitwear and accessories…
Gabriella Marina González: I have been focusing on this but I am hoping to reincorporate clothing in the future. I feel more satisfied with accessories and knits at the moment. I guess I just make whatever I want because I don't believe in these seasonal 'rules'. Just because we have become accustomed to something doesn't mean that is the way things are.

DD: In which shops can we find your clothes?
Gabriella Marina González: Machine-A boutique stocks me in London and I have a group of eccentric clients in the U.S and U.K who I make private orders for.

DD: Any future projects in mind?
Gabriella Marina González: I am currently working on A/W 11 and dreaming of moving back to the States and opening a Cramps cover girl themed go-go dancing bar and venue. Hopefully I can get A.D.D radio running out of there as well. I want my only clientele to consist only of speed freak tramps because I won't have to explain myself to them.  

Photography by Sarah Piantadosi