Wayne Andrew Hemingway MBE (born 19 January 1961)[1] is an English designer and co-founder of Red or Dead.[2] He is also on the Design Council Trustee Board[3] and having been with the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) for a decade since its inception (as Chair of Building For Life) is now on the Design Council CABE Committee. Hemingway is a Professor in The Built Environment Department of Northumbria University, a Doctor of Design at Wolverhampton, Lancaster and Stafford, a Fellow of Blackburn College and a Senior Fellow of Regent's University London.

Wayne Hemingway
Hemingway in 2013
Born (1961-01-19) 19 January 1961 (age 63)
Morecambe, England, U.K.
LabelRed or Dead
FatherBilly Two Rivers

Early life and education

edit

Hemingway was born in Morecambe, Lancashire, the son of Mohawk chief and former wrestler Billy Two Rivers.[4] His father left the family and returned to Canada when Wayne was three years old, but the two later resumed contact.[5][6]

Hemingway's earliest memories are of his mother and grandmother dressing him up as Elvis, a Beatle or Tarzan and being paraded up and down Morecambe pier.[7] His grandfather worked at Grimethorpe colliery as a civil engineer.[4] He lived on Thirlmere Drive and attended Lancaster Road school.[8] He later earned a scholarship at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn.[9]

In 1982 he completed a Degree in Geography and Town Planning at University College London,[10] and subsequently completed an MA in Fashion at the University of Surrey.[11]

On 25 June 2014, Wayne Hemingway and his wife, Gerardine Hemingway MBE, were made Honorary Senior Fellows of Regent's University London.[12]

Work

edit

Hemingway started his fashion career by selling items from his wardrobe, and that of his childhood sweetheart (now wife) Gerardine, in Camden Market.[7] It was such a success that Gerardine opened a stall in the Kensington market, selling clothes she produced from a sewing machine on-site. [13]

It was £6 rent for the stall and we took £80 the first day. It just took off from there.[14]

They proved successful, and by the end of the year they had 16 stalls at the market, with shipments of second-hand clothing and footwear brought in from all over the world.[2]

By 1983, they had opened a shop in Kensington, London, selling Gerardine's self-made clothes. That same year, the first Red or Dead collection was also created, inspired by Russian peasant clothing. It was well received and they obtained a large order from US department store Macy's. Red or Dead stores began to sell Dr. Martens work-wear shoes as a fashion item, thus began a range of fashion shoes within the stores.[2]

Their Red or Dead brand went on to win the British Fashion Council's Street style Award in 1995, 1996, and 1997.[15]

In 1998 Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway sold the Red or Dead company to Pentland Group a privately held, global brand management company.[16] The sale financed Gerardine's design of their house in Chichester, West Sussex.[17] The house cost around £330,000 to build and furnish (in 2005).[18]

In 1999 they set up 'HemingwayDesign', which specialises in affordable and social design. The highest profile project Homes. the Staiths South Bank, an 800 property mass market housing project on Tyneside for Taylor Wimpey Homes[19] Award has won a series of high-profile awards, including the 2005 Housing Design Award for best large project[20] and Building Magazine's "Best Housing-Led Regeneration Project"[21] and the highest rating of any large-scale scheme in a recent CABE audit.[7] Other major projects include The Bridge Dartford, a development of 1,000 homes in Kent.[22]

Hemingway has designed beachpods in Boscombe for rent and sale, which raised over £1 million for the local authority.[23]

In 2010, he wrote the foreword to the book Cycling in the North of England.[24]

Hemingway's team organised a new cultural event in August 2010, the 'Vintage Festival'. In 2011, the festival took place at Southbank Centre in London, as part of the 60th Anniversary of the Festival of Britain (held originally in 1951), and again in 2012. In 2013, the Vintage Festival took place in Glasgow[25] and Morecambe. Hemingway said

We loved visiting Glasgow when we had our Red or Dead shop on Buchanan Street and have always enjoyed visiting Glasgow's Merchant City.[25]

A Vintage New Year was held at Southbank Centre in 2013. October 2013 saw the launch of Vintage presents A Classic Car Boot Sale.[26]

In 2012, Wayne, Gerardine, and the 'HemingwayDesign' team were appointed as designers of the historic and disused Dreamland site in Margate. This included the transformation and branding of the £10m heritage theme park.[27]

In 2012, Hemingway received an honorary degree ('Doctor of Arts') from Leeds Metropolitan University.[28]

In 2014, Hemingway's company introduced a new London Underground staff uniform, initially trialled at several stations and train depots before being introduced company-wide in 2015.[29] In the same year, it was announced he was to become patron of The Unite Foundation, a charity providing free university accommodation to young people in the UK from challenging backgrounds.[30]

Family

edit

Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway were both appointed MBE in 2006, for services to the design industry, in the Queen's Birthday Honours.[31] They live in Chichester, West Sussex and have four children - Jack, Tilly, Corey and Beck.[4] They also have a springer spaniel called Minnie.

Wayne is a supporter of Blackburn Rovers[32] and became an Honorary Patron of leading Blackburn Rovers supporters group, The BRFC Action Group, in May 2012.[citation needed]

Hemingway has made several appearances on the Sky Sports 2 TV show Soccer AM.[33]

Bibliography

edit

Wayne has also written a few design books.

  • Kitsch (20th Century Icons), (Publisher) Absolute Press, 2 December 1999, ISBN 978-1899791972
  • Just Above The Mantelpiece: Mass-Market Masterpieces, (Publisher) Booth-Clibborn Editions, 22 November 2002 ISBN 978-1861541949
  • Mass Market Classics: A Celebration of Everyday Design, (Publisher) RotoVision, 29 August 2003, ISBN 978-2880467340
  • Cocktail Shakers Lava Lamps Tuppe,(Publisher) Rockport Publishers Inc, 28 November 2003, ISBN 978-1592530458
  • Home Buyers Guide Counter-pack, The: What to Look & Ask for When Buying a New Home, (Publisher) Black Dog Publishing, 1 July 2004, ISBN 978-1904772125
  • Richard Okon: Prefab Publisher, (Publisher) Photographers' Gallery, Nov 2006, ISBN 978-0907879770
  • Place to Live (with Gerardine), (Publisher) Quadrille Publishing, 5 September 2011, ISBN 978-1844008193
  • The Vintage Fashion Bible: The Complete Guide to Buying and Styling Vintage Fashion from the 1920s to 1990s, (Publisher) David & Charles Publishers, 30 September 2014, ISBN 978-1446304426

References

edit
  1. ^ "Entry Information". FreeBMD. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
  2. ^ a b c "History". Red or Dead. Archived from the original on 25 July 2008.
  3. ^ Design Council Trustee Board
  4. ^ a b c Jackson, Tina (8 April 2013). "Wayne Hemingway: My family values". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
  5. ^ "Tattenham Corner". The Observer. London. 14 July 2002. Retrieved 24 July 2009.
  6. ^ "Red Indian's Son in Style Pow-Wow". The Cumberland News. 23 November 2004. Archived from the original on 24 July 2012. Retrieved 26 July 2009.
  7. ^ a b c "Wayne Hemingway MBE". London Sustainable Development Commission. Archived from the original on 25 May 2010.
  8. ^ "Wayne plays the regeneration game". The Visitor. Morecambe. 28 January 2004. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  9. ^ Martin, Andy (8 November 2020). "Wayne Hemingway on how his working-class roots helped him in fashion". The Independent. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  10. ^ "Wayne Hemmingway – "they call me a designer"". Northumbria University. 21 November 2005. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
  11. ^ "HEMINGWAY, Wayne Andrew". Who's Who 2016. A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc. 2016.
  12. ^ "University honours affordable design champions". Regent's University London. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  13. ^ Lee-Falcon, Mark (26 May 2017). "An interview with Wayne Hemingway the Co-Founder of House of Hemingway". Seen in The City.
  14. ^ Jones, Chris (8 November 2002). "Wayne Hemingway: Earnest about design". BBC News.
  15. ^ "Archive". The Fashion Awards. Archived from the original on 11 September 2018. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  16. ^ "Profile: Wayne's world". The Independent. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  17. ^ Tyzack, Anna (21 January 2014). "My perfect weekend: Wayne Hemingway, designer and youth ambassador". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
  18. ^ Abrahams, Charlotte (19 November 2005). "Access all areas". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
  19. ^ "Wayne Hemingway". Startups. Archived from the original on 29 September 2011.
  20. ^ "The Staiths, Gateshead". Housing Design Awards. 2005. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
  21. ^ "Best housing-led regeneration project". Building. 2 December 2005. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
  22. ^ "Viewpoint: Wayne Hemingway". BBC News. 26 March 2007. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
  23. ^ "Third of Boscombe's Hemingway beach pods still unsold". BBC News. 21 January 2014. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
  24. ^ Douglas, Robert; Grimshaw, John (2010). Cycling in the North of England. AA Publishing. ISBN 978-0-749565329.
  25. ^ a b "Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway's vintage festival set to make a Scottish debut at Glasgow's Merchant City Festival". Glasgow City Council. February 2013. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
  26. ^ "Vintage presents the Classic Car Boot Sale at the Southbank Centre, London 15th & 16th March 2014". Vintage Festival. 2013. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
  27. ^ "Margate Dreamland: Wayne Hemingway to design new site". BBC News. 7 November 2012. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
  28. ^ "Red or Dead founder receives University honour". Leeds Metropolitan University. 25 July 2012. Archived from the original on 23 February 2014. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
  29. ^ "There's a new Tube uniform and it might just hurt your eyes". Daily Mirror. 3 November 2014.
  30. ^ "Home". Unite Foundation.
  31. ^ "Wayne Hemingway MBE and Gerardine Hemingway MBE". Staffordshire University. Archived from the original on 16 July 2009.
  32. ^ Humphreys, Jemma (6 November 2008). "Burnley's Claret colour banned by Blackburn Rovers-supporting designer". Lancashire Telegraph. Retrieved 7 March 2013.
  33. ^ "It's called the butt". YouTube. 30 November 2007. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
edit