Born to Fail

>> “We’re coming up to the general election and these words of a generation have never been more relevant. Over the next few weeks, a generation brought up to believe they are ‘born to fail’ have the opportunity to change the system, and therefore, their future.” Matthew Miller wouldn’t have needed a specific reason to re-issue the slogan ‘Born to Fail’ from his A/W 13 collection but come May 7th, in what is likely to be a closely fought, hard-to-call general election, significant change (hopefully for the better) feels like it’s around the corner.

The slogan was taken from a study published in 1973 by the National Children’s Bureau, about socially disadvantaged children born in the late 50s. Generations later and from Miller’s perspective nothing much has changed in terms of social mobility, education and opportunity in life, in part down to governments in the UK. The slogan is meant to be a bittersweet salute to the so-called ‘lost’ generation of “failure”, re-assessing what that word even means today and acknowledging that something positive can emerge from failure.

Redrawn by typography artist and sign writer R Ventura, ‘Born to Fail’ graces a capsule collection of biker jackets, t-shirts and sweatshirts in uniform-like khaki green and black, which will be live on Miller’s e-store this week. It’s message may be immediately gloomy but embedded into the slogan is a peace sign – activism has never been more alive and vibrant – and Miller re-issues this statement with hope in the background.

“People often ask me to write articles about politics,” says Miller. “But I’m not a writer, I’m a designer and visual communicator. So this is my article – Article 15 – Politics Now.”