Gareth Pugh

This British fashion designer is great not only because his designs are fabulous, but really because he continued to do it even though he wasn't making any money.

His Wikipedia page reports, 'Though he is currently a darling of the fashion elite, Pugh claimed in March 2007 that he had yet to sell a single dress and that he struggled to make ends meet. Until his Spring 2007 collection, his clothes were solely catwalk experiments and simply unavailable to purchase. While constructing his autumn 2005 debut collection, shown in the Fashion East group show, he was squatting in a converted warehouse. A court order ultimately forced him to leave the building.'

In Hint Magazine's interview with Gareth, he revealed, 'It was a huge converted warehouse the size of Harvey Nichols. I stayed there for a month. The building was split up into various levels. It had an art gallery, a nightclub, a theater with stupidly high ceilings and a fully equipped gym with a sunbed and saunas. There was also a gospel church with loads of side rooms which we used as bedrooms. On the top level was the roof, which made bonfire nights a lot of fun. We watched a 360-degree firework show all over London one night. My studio was the gym, and off the gym was a completely mirrored dance studio like Flashdance. I often used the sunbed as a bed. It was warm, and it was February, so elsewhere in the building was quite cold. And it meant that although I didn't sleep for a month, I still retained a healthy glow. We were kicked out to property developers with a court order. They're ripping the whole thing down to build luxury flats. It's such a shame!'

He says his current studio is unheated and has only two electrical outlets.

His designs have been too experimental or too extreme to sell, but they make an excellent performance on the catwalk. But he doesn't seem to be bothered much. He is an artist with a bigger perspective in mind. Gareth, I love you because you make me dream.

Check out this video from his London show Fall 2008. And this...