Matthew Gallagher

Matthew Gallagher was born and raised in Amherst, a small town in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada.

At the age of 16, Gallagher wrote letters to fashion industry professionals in hopes to secure an internship. Gallagher arrived home from school one day to voicemail messages from Kal Ruttenstein of Bloomingdales and Tom Ford who was with Gucci at the time. The following week Gallagher's parents drove him from Nova Scotia to New York City for an interview with Ruttenstein where he helped place him with an internship at Tracy Reece for the upcoming summer. During this time Gallagher corresponded with Tom Ford which resulted in receiving a letter of recommendation for university.

After graduation Gallagher briefly attended NSCAD University before moving to Montreal to begin studies at LaSalle College. At the age of 21 Gallagher moved to Milan, Italy where he trained at Instituto Marangoni and Instituto Europeo Di Design. Post graduation Gallagher worked as a costume designer for Ubisoft as well as a freelance illustrator for Ports 1961. After five years in Italy Gallagher moved back to Canada where he had the opportunity to show his first collection and create his brand House of Gallagher in Toronto at World MasterCard Fashion Week.

In 2015 Gallagher won the $25,000 cash prize and Toronto Fashion Incubator's award for most promising new talent and was nominated for a Canadian Arts and Fashion Award for emerging designer of the year in both 2015 and 2016.

During Gallagher's time in Toronto his work has been featured in publications such as Fashion Magazine, Vogue Italia, Elle Canada, CTV News, The Globe and Mail, The Kit and Nuvo Magazine as well as dressing Lady Gaga, Elisha Cuthbert, Maripier Morin, Sarah Polley, Jessi Cruickshank, Suzanne Rogers and Ariana Debose.