Andrew Clancey shot by Lily Darragh, Ed Nash Studio
You could say Andrew Clancey was born with an iron spoon in his mouth. The Yorkshire, England native’s family started a scrapyard in 1872 and as a teenager, the future fashion designer was poised to take over the dirty job of running the yard.
“The scrapyard is not the most pleasant of places,” he says. “But I continued working there—driving the lories and forklift trucks. It was very tough work.”
And definitely not Clancey’s dream job.
The creative-minded teen loved music and fashion and used his paycheck from the stockyard to stock up on stylish threads.
“I was the first person in my town to buy Versace and Moschino,” he says. “I always liked to dress a bit differently. My sister and I were both into fashion and we would follow the trends. Any new music genre that came out, I’d have to buy all the records and dress like the [artist].”
One day Clancey skipped out on the stockyard and followed his fashion stylist sister to a gig in London and never looked back. He went on to style album covers and famous clients like Richard Branson. After 10 years of styling in the UK, he followed a girlfriend to New York but was unable to get his visa as a stylist. A chance meeting at a wedding led to Clancey’s first retail store—a multi-brand operation that showcased British designers to shoppers in the States called Any Old Iron, in tribute to the family business.
Photographer: Lily Darragh, Ed Nash Studio, Models: Raigan Stump and Aeniah Lanae, AMAX Agency, Makeup: Katie Galliher, Hair: Stan Newton
When Nashville-based stylists shopped the store, they’d tell Clancey he needed a Music City outpost. Eventually, he made the trip down to check out the scene and he was hooked. He opened Any Old Iron’s first Nashville location in 2014.
It wouldn’t be long before a moment of ingenuity would lead to his next career move.
“There was a sequined jacket that we sold in our store that I couldn’t keep in stock and the designer in England stopped making it. I was like, ‘Let me just try and find some sequins.’ I went to the fabric store and found this mermaid sequin. I wondered if it would be possible to make a jacket out of that. I ended up finding a way to do it and it sold in the first week,” he says. “I was like, ‘Wow. We might have something here.’”
Now his designs are worn by some of music’s biggest names—in Nashville and beyond. Taylor Swift wore Any Old Iron in her video for “You Need to Calm Down.” Miranda Lambert, an early fan of the brand, has rocked AOI on many a red carpet. Beyoncé, Elton John, and more have all followed suit in the brand’s signature sequin looks.
But Clancey is quick to point out that he wasn’t an overnight success, noting that Miranda Lambert was one of his first Nashville clients.
He’d made a name for himself in Music City, but when B. Akerlund, who has styled looks for the likes of Madonna and Katy Perry, saw his first Fashion Week collection she approached him with a note.
“We had three sequined jackets out of 20 looks, and she said, ‘You should do 17 sequined jackets out of 20 looks,’” recalls Clancey. “That’s what made us big in L.A. That’s when Lady Gaga got it and Beyoncé, and that’s where we got Cher and Ozzy Osbourne. That gave us credibility with stylists, and local stylists began to see us differently. Celebrity always helps with credibility—and sales, of course.”
While Clancey appreciates the celeb exposure, he stays pretty cool about it. For the most part.
“I freaked out on Jane Fonda. I was like, ‘Barbarella is wearing my stuff! Am I really seeing this?’ And of course, Beyoncé. She posted three pictures on her Instagram and in that moment, it was like, ‘Wake the girlfriend up! I need to tell someone!’”
Now Clancey is bringing his rock ‘n’ roll styles to even more of the masses with his newly opened store on Music Row. After moving from his original space in East Nashville to his Cannery Row showroom, Clancey is very excited to have a space that’s both consumer-facing and set up for custom design.
“I saw this space on Music Row and it just felt right for us to be in the center of all those recording studios,” he says. “It was a shell of a space that we were able to build out. We'll have appointment days for our celebrity clientele and custom stuff, and then we can have people just walking in. Everything just fell into place.”
That is until COVID. But true to his stockyard work ethic, Clancey wasn’t going to stop hustling just because the world was slipping out of their couture and into their cozies. Instead, saw an opportunity to keep his customers safe and stylish by way of signature sequined Any Old Iron masks for both adults and children.
“I remember when we had just about 100 cases in the U.S. and I asked my production [team], ‘Can you make 10 masks in my sequins?’ I wanted to see how they felt on your face and how they breathed and looked,” Clancey says. “I put them on Instagram, and they sold out in the same day. They kept selling out and I thought, ‘People are dying. I don’t want to benefit from that,’ so we partnered with Med Threads Nashville and started donating cotton versions of the masks. Now we’re doing that with schoolchildren and college students. And if an RN messages me, of course I’ll do a discount.”
Clancey says the masks are starting a trial run at Nordstrom Rack.
“To be at Nordstrom within five years of starting the business is amazing.”
And while the pandemic has certainly changed the brand’s plans, the momentary pause on custom creations and ready-to-wear demand has given Clancey time to perfect his own new retail space, which includes Nashville’s first playable cash wrap, complete with a drum kit and guitars.
“I’m excited,” says Clancey of the new store. “We’re really going for it.”
Any Old Iron, 917-912-0470; anyoldiron.us