Gareth Pugh versus Mert Otsamo

Gareth in his atelier.

Gareth Pugh is one of the greatest English fashion designers alive. He studied in Central Saint Martins and made quite a entrance to the world of fashion with his graduation collection in 2003. Pretty much ever since he has worked for his own label, which is funded by the one and only Rick Owens who owns 49% of Pugh's company with his wife.
     Pugh is known for his edgy avant-garde design aethestic that has gotten a bit more commercial since the days he was starting his career. And obviously that is understandable - you got to get the money from somewhere. Gareth is always playing with different volumes and materials in his collections. Materials like PVC, latex or different kind of plastic materials or fur are not new to him, he uses most of them pretty much in every collection he does. And those are the materials he definitely knows how to work with.

Model in Mert's outfit and Mert Otsamo Pic: Iltalehti

Then there is Mert Otsamo. A young Finnish designer with a huge amount of talent and some fresh ideas to pursue a successful career in Finnish fashion industry. He came in the third place of Finnish version of Project Runway. Ever since that he has worked for his own label and showed three (?) collections under his own name.
     Like Pugh, Mert has very edgy and dark avant-garde aethestic in his designs. His material choices are pretty much the same with Pugh and the silhouttes and shapes... Well I can say there are A LOT similarities. What comes to styling, they are like twins. But what Gareth has done few years back, Mert is doing now. The only difference between these two seems to be that Gareth does things in a bit more modern way, where Mert's work seems a tiny bit outdated.

Gareth Pugh - Spring 2013 pic: Prince of Scots

Mert Otsamo - "Army of Generation" pic: House of Syys

Gareth Pugh - Fall/Winter 2012 pic: Purple.fr

Mert Otsamo - "Army of Generation" pic: House of Syys

Some people call Mert Osamo as "the Finnish Alexander McQueen". Somehow I can agree and somehow... well not so much. He is definitely creating something new in the Finnish fashion scene but like it always goes, what is done in here now has been done in somewhere else ages ago. And trust me, I know that fashion is all about repeating itself, but when designers repeat each others shamelessly, is it just lack of originality or perhaps lack of personality? In any case it definitely does not sound that good.
     I'm not trying to mock Mert - I respect him and his talent - but I'm only worried if he doesn't focus his talent on creating something more him, not something that McQueen did or what Pugh does, what is going to happen? Will he gain his spot on the top or lose it and leave the industry as a loser? Time will tell and the next years will show what he really is capable to do.