You Better Work / In Correspondence with Matthew Williamson
Dear Matthew,
Have you read The Surrender Experiment? In it, Michael A. Singer chronicles how he lets God (for lack of a better word) guide him through life. Instead of making active decisions, he says yes to whatever is presented to him. Using this methodology, he completes his PhD programme (despite wanting to drop out), creates a renowned meditation centre, and becomes a software pioneer. The book challenges the notion of individual agency and proposes instead that there is a greater plan for us all. His advice is that we should give in to our destiny, we should follow the stream of energy that takes us through life.
I’m thinking about this book as I’m at a sort of crossroads in my life. Last year, we sold our apartment in Stockholm and bought a small house in a nearby suburb, but I realized almost immediately that I’m not a suburban person but rather a rural one. So now we’re in the process of selling it and moving even farther out into the countryside. I’ve also reached what I think is the end of my academic life. In 2013, I became the first person in the world to achieve a PhD in what was then the newly established academic discipline fashion studies. But these days, I find it difficult to think about fashion, and I don’t think I’m good at teaching it, either. Not to mention the research part. I’ve worked so hard to find new ways to make a living, but it’s difficult. But perhaps I should just trust life and give up the idea that I’m in control?
Earlier this week, someone said to me, in passing, that we “live in the era of ugliness”. I thought about this, and I think it’s not only an interesting idea, but probably true. Hartmut Rosa claimed that the acceleration of time is what defines modernity. Both the production and consumption of things move faster and faster. I would add that it’s also about scale. Our time is marked by high pace and large-scale production, as evidenced by the fact that Shein today is the world’s largest and most popular fashion brand. This is part of what makes everything so ugly. You can also see it in architecture, the food industry, and fashion. And this is why it’s important to resist, to find ways of making the world beautiful again.
This magazine is my way of resisting, and I’m thinking your design practice has been yours? Or perhaps this is a too ideologically charged perspective, and design is just a line of work that you enjoy? Not everything needs to be viewed through a political lens.
Philip
Dear Philip
From time to time, I love the notion of just letting go and giving over to destiny, but my reality is quite different. I do like the life I’ve created. The book is definitely on my list of must reads as I’m curious to know how that philosophy could pan out for someone like me, who’s hard wired to work. I also think I’m at my most content or even happiest when I’m working. Any upcoming “time off” is usually quite stress-inducing for me. You see, I’ve always been led to believe that without a silver spoon in your mouth you must work to survive, so I’ve worked really hard and always tried to go the extra mile, as I want to live a good life and do more than just survive. The work-life-balance is a challenge for sure.
Work has always been a driving force in my life. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good margarita and catching up with friends, holidays, sunsets, walks in nature and so on, but I get most satisfaction from the creative process, making something from nothing and seeing it go out into the world. I’ve done that consistently from the age of 24 and now I’m 53!
I had my astrological chart read a number of years back. Ironically, I was on a wellness retreat in Thailand for burnout due to work overload. One thing the reader said to me that rang true was how hard I would find it to not ever be working, and he was right.
Fashion was my line of work for more than 20 years, and it certainly paid the bills and afforded me and my partner of 33 years a lovely lifestyle. That was a long time ago however, and everything moves on.
Slowly over time, I grew out of that role, and I felt less excited by what I was doing each season, as the business aspects began to overwhelm the creative ones. I could write a book on why I left fashion, but the short version is that I fell out of love with it. I’ve evolved and these days I couldn’t really care less about it.
Matthew
Dear Matthew
I think a lot about geography, or more specifically about the concept of place, these days. Perhaps this is because when I was a fashion theorist fulltime, I had to think a lot about time. Fashion is all about change (albeit a superficial one because it’s just about details and appearances, changing the look of something while the system itself is more or less always the same) and so I had to give an infinite number of lectures on the theories of time, and even write a few books about it. Now that I’m leaving the academic world behind, and moving from one country to another, I think more about the concept of place, and how your surroundings affect you.
When we’re in our house in Italy (we don’t only live in a Swedish suburb!), we live on a mountain, which I find strange as I grew up by the sea, in a landscape completely opposite of this. But I love it here, the mountain has an almost supernatural energy, I often feel close to God when I look out over the surrounding landscape. People in Bologna often ask me, incredulously, “why did you move to Grizzana of all places?!” and the answer is maybe because it’s so small, it has only 3,000 inhabitants, so everything moves at a slow pace, and seems to revolve mainly around culinary traditions, producing wine, and in different ways upholding the artistic legacy of the town’s most famous inhabitant, Giorgio Morandi. In fact, I’m writing this at the modern art museum in Bologna. I came here because I wanted to see the section dedicated to Morandi’s work (which was beautiful).
Speaking of work, like you I’m also a workaholic. I love working while on vacation. It makes me feel useful. I can write entire articles in my mind while swimming in the sea, afterwards rushing back to the hotel room to type them out and send them to my editor at the newspaper. In my previous letter, I mentioned that I was thinking about ugliness a lot, and now these thoughts are turning into a book on the role of ugliness in contemporary life. This happens to me all the time, everywhere around me I see opportunities to develop ideas into something I can work with.
Throughout the years, I’ve done so many different things. Picking strawberries in the fields, babysitting, copywriting, academic research, writing books, and giving university lectures. For some time, I worked in a design store. I’m still friends with some of the clients from that time, twenty years later. It was nice, we met through a shared interest in aesthetics – everyone who shopped there on a regular basis was interested in the design of everyday life and wanted to make their world as beautiful as possible.
What made you move to Mallorca? How did you make the switch from fashion to interiors? Do you go back to the UK a lot? When I’m in Italy, it’s like Sweden doesn’t exist (except for my family), I try to remember what I even did when I lived in Stockholm and the only thing that comes to mind is walking the dog (though I’m sure I also did other things). I’ve always lived more in the future than in the past and always found upcoming projects more exciting than what I’ve just completed.
We stay in contact with plenty of people in Sweden, but life in the Italian countryside is surprisingly social, everyone is constantly inviting us for aperitivo or wanting to stop by with something they’ve just baked.
Today, we signed a contract with the realtor in Sweden, so our house will be on the market shortly. I can’t wait to be free.
Philip
PS. How’s your Spanish?
Dear Philip
We change our minds, moods, desires etc., don’t we? I think as humans we go through distinct phases or waves in our lives. For example - most of my friends now are different to those I had in my 20s, I live in a different country now with a whole new culture to absorb, I have a ten-year-old daughter and a different career and outlook. Obviously, everyone’s different and we all move and evolve at different paces.
I like to see my life like the chapters of a book. It helps me. Chapter 1: “childhood and youth”, Chapter 2: “degree and career in fashion”, and so on... I feel like I’m starting “Chapter 4” now. It’s been the hardest chapter, phase or wave to adapt to over these past few years, but slowly but surely the jigsaw pieces are starting to slot into place. For the past few years, I’ve had to be patient (which I hate), sit with things longer than I’d like to see any movement, and generally slow down to some extent and let go of control and see what comes forward. It’s not easy for me to do that and it’s all sage advice and great if you can afford to but many can’t, and my active brain and creative impulses don’t like sitting still and waiting… I’ve just had to try despite my leanings to settle into a brand-new chapter that’s different, and maybe a little more slow-paced.
I choose to work in interiors after fashion, as I thought I’d be good at it. If I can dress people surely l can dress rooms too, I thought. It wasn’t so much of a jumping off a cliff moment but more of a gentle pivot. For the past few years, I’ve focused mostly on designing homeware products and a few interior commissions each year, but it’s definitely not been easy.
I’ve found so many challenges along the way. I don’t think life has brought things to me on a doorstep. I think I’ve worked extra hard and made my own path. I don’t think I’ve been particularly lucky. I’ve created my career and lifestyle myself, and I’m proud of what I’ve achieved.
Mallorca was a happy accident. I had no plans to move here or even visit but shortly after the wellness retreat trip my friend (who thought I still looked tired) invited me to her home on the island for a weekend, and I fell in love with Deià specifically. I returned a few months later with my partner and we bought a house there and never looked back. We’ve made the house a home, we have friends in the village, and we love our lives there.
My Spanish is terrible. It’s embarrassingly bad but it is what it is. Languages were never my forte. I stumble through, and it’s ok. I should probably brush up though, as the next phase for me is to create and open a lifestyle store in Deià in the spring of 2026.
During my stint trying to sit still and let things just be, I came up with this plan to own a store. I tried thinking about other avenues, such as painting, maybe becoming a gardener or running creative retreats or owning a hotel or maybe doing more tv work. All ideas which could have worked out or perhaps not but this idea of having a store stuck and we found the perfect building on the main street, and again it felt like more pieces of a jigsaw puzzle slotting into place.
I now feel ready for my own project. Something which I creatively direct, while Joseph runs the business side. An evolution of how we first started but this time hopefully a bit wiser and with more experience under our belts. We both know our strengths and work well together. Since fashion, I’ve been longing for a three-dimensional space I’ve created, where you come inside to immerse yourself in.
Working for brands over the years has been great but everything I do always ends up online, and I feel detached. The store should remedy that for me. Like you, we live high up on a mountain, in a pine tree forest, and the store will be right at the foot of our road. I’m working out the interiors, the branding, the products and all that goes into building a new business right now and I’m loving it. Most of it at least.
Once open I plan to work in the store myself from time to time. I’m looking forward to seeing people’s reactions and connecting with them face to face. It’s encouraging to hear you are still friends with some of the clients you met when you worked in a store 20 years on. I’m excited for the next step.
I guess it’s a bit of a reaction to the current swipe, like, move on, over-stimulated online, consumerist world we now live in. I’m as sucked in by the mobile phone as the next person, but it doesn’t sit well with me at all and I’m wrestling with how to live my life less connected to a phone. Hopefully the store, and my time spent in there should go somewhat to redressing the balance I crave.
80% of what I buy for the store will be made locally or certainly European. Lots of products will be vintage. I’ll add in a few of my fashion archive pieces too for old time’s sake. I’m not particularly nostalgic nor do I spend heaps of time looking back but I think it will be a nice touch for some people who visit to see the full body of my work in one place.
Next year, if you come back to Mallorca, you must pop in at Caserra 71 (the house in the mountains, built in 1971, the year I was born) and say hello. By then chapter 4 will hopefully be in full swing.
Matthew
Dear Matthew
Writing this from a train stuck in the middle of nowhere somewhere on the Swedish west coast. This morning, the car wouldn’t start and so I rushed to the train station, but now the train has broken down; it’s like the universe is telling me to stay home and not go to work today. Do you ever experience this, that you’re getting signals somehow, someone/something giving you useful hints? Or do you think this is simply superstition? Perhaps I’m reading too much into this, probably I’m just looking for signs that it would be OK to skip a day of working.
I’ve been employed for several years, decades even, and I think this experience changes you, compared to being a freelancer or your own boss. It makes you comfortable, less prone to risk-taking. I was thinking about this as you wrote about your professional trajectory and plans on opening the store – do you think it’s a certain type of person who dares to take chances? Or do you become a risk-taker through freelancing and the lack of financial security that comes with that?
All around me, I see people who are bored with their work, who would much rather be doing something else and more creative, but they stay in their jobs because of their mortgages, children, and other financial responsibilities. Personally, I’m torn. I would like to have a stimulating professional life but at the same time, the university gig offers stability as we are continuing our venture with the magazine. My most commonly asked question, whenever I speak with a tarot card reader or numerologist, is when I can leave my tenured position, but in reality, that’s not a question for them but for my bank account. Why is it that we think that what we do for work is meant to be fulfilling? Are we placing too much emphasis on what we do for a living?
Our Italian house is slightly older than yours (ours is from 1968) and the garden is huge (4,000 square metres), so there’s always something to do, it’s the perfect place for someone who’s not good at doing nothing (yoga for me is torture). Now we also have a young Italian neighbour helping us out in the garden, it’s great to practice Italian while trimming hedges. It doesn’t have to be more complicated than that; we work because things need to be worked on.
Recently, I lost a close relative. He was old and his wife, my aunt, had passed six months prior, so I suppose it was time, though it’s been a difficult time, processing that both of them – that I’ve known since I was born – are gone. Last night, I was looking through a photo album from when I was a small child. Almost everyone in the album is now deceased; my grandparents, father, uncle and aunt… I looked at the faces of people I used to know, spending time together in rooms that I’m intimately familiar with but that no longer exist, and I was reminded of how quickly time flies. Not long ago, this was what our family looked like, but now, two generations are gone forever, and I’m next in line to die. In one photo, my uncle turned 34, and in another, it was my mother’s 31st birthday. Looking at the photos reminded me of how important it is to not waste life; to not keep doing what you don’t enjoy, to not feel stuck. Easier said than done. But every moment counts, and soon we’ll all be dust.
This year, I’m trying to start a new chapter, moving to the countryside and working less in academia. Next year, it’s your turn, with your new store and with that, plenty of new routines. I love that part of a project, when everything is starting up, everything feels new and the sky’s the limit.
Philip
Dear Philip
I was talking about this the other day to a friend of a similar age to me, who’s also ran her own business for decades. Over a Caesar salad in a restaurant in Deià, we chatted about how one really needs a certain drive, unwavering ambition, and a relentless dust yourself off and pick yourself up kind of attitude to work successfully for yourself.
It takes such clarity of vision and a willingness to learn on the job and develop versatility skills to work across so many areas. I’ve had determination and drive since childhood. I’m sure I inherited it from my parents. Their work ethic has without doubt influenced and shaped mine. I’m at my happiest when working (most days anyway), especially if it’s for myself. By that I mean that whilst I’ve enjoyed working for other brands, and within large companies, I think I’m best suited to being my own boss and doing things my way, hence beginning my next career chapter soon.
Starting a new brand – Caserra 71 – at the age of 54 may well be madness but I want to give it a go and pour all my efforts and learnings into it and try to create something special. It may well work and succeed, but I’m equally prepared for it not to. I’m realistic about the retail landscape generally at the moment, but despite all my doubts and fears I’m ploughing ahead with it anyway and trying to enjoy all facets of the whole process. That dogged ambition hasn’t softened much over the years. I’m trying to step forward in these early stages being mindful of the potential pitfalls but hopeful and excited that it could be a lovely fulfilling cherry on my career cake. For sure there are days I’d rather stay home sofa bound with the TV on and see no one but I think we all have those days and that’s ok.
I’ve also noticed lately that there seems to be a lot of the younger generation who are struggling to see a road map of their career as clearly and from such a young age as I did. Even a spark of clarity around a concept of a career they might love seems rare. I’m grateful that I didn’t go through that phase, and I feel lucky to have had a passion and an energy and even excitement for my work from as far back as I can remember.
With social media in everyone’s grasp now I wonder how that might be affecting their career uncertainty and trepidation. Constant comparisons and sense of inferiority in regard to others can be a real drag and ultimately slow you down or even derail your plans.
When we talk about money and work-related money, it gets tricky. Everyone has their own spin on this. Again, I think I watched my parents working so hard but yet earning relatively little. That struck a chord with me. It didn’t stack up in my young head, and so I knew I’d have to do things differently. It couldn’t be a mundane, 9 to 5-job.
I chose a career that I thought might pay well if I worked super hard and eventually could excel at it. Luckily, I’ve been OK for 30 + years, as my business was and still is financially successful. My partner, on the other hand, ended his career in fashion ten years ago; he jumped off a (metaphorical) cliff and spent five years studying and training to become an executive coach, during which time he budgeted wisely and spent very little, and lived within his means. I admire him a lot for that, as I’m not sure I could do it so easily.
Most people have to work to earn a living, myself included. Advice this is perhaps not, but I do think finding something special and interesting to you, that you are great at doing, will more likely set you up on a good path and hopefully earn you enough to live life well. I feel privileged to be doing something I love. That said, I know it’s often easier said than done.
I think if I didn’t work, I’d go mad. I like my time off, pottering, cooking, gardening, painting, and domestic life, seeing my friends, and travelling, but I’m not ready yet to hang my career hat up and only do just those things.
With all of this said, I do recognize the workaholic tendencies I seem to have and often try to pull back from it a bit and explore other non-work-based ideas, activities and experiences. Creating discipline around this is hard for me but as I enter this potentially very busy and perhaps all-consuming chapter I want to work more on my life work balance. Like with most things in a good life it’s often about striking a good healthy balance and getting that right is one of my biggest challenges but I’m working on it!
Matthew
