Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Fashion designer and professor, headed fashion at Central St Martin's and Royal College of Art, taught Stella McCartney, had her own label.
On the island
Eight records
They were looking for a designer to design some stage clothes for them... and this has great memories for me travelling with them to different gigs.
It's such a great record, this one, because it's those feelings of those days when everything goes right.
This takes me back, I was probably 14, and it was the first time I'd be going out to dances.
He used to come into the studio and buy clothes... and it was such a great time, the 80s.
It was a very poignant time for me. I was starting on my own. And I just love a soppy song.
It just reminds me of holidays in Majorca with the boys.
No Woman, No CryFavourite
We were actually there at the Lyceum Ballroom in the Strand, July nineteen seventy five, and it was such a brilliant evening.
It sums up life at that time... we had to get a helicopter into Manhattan for the first time ever. It was just brilliant.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:19Is taking risks central to creativity in fashion?
Totally central, and we always encourage our students to really challenge what's going on, not do what's been before. So it's really finding your own design identity, believing in what you do and being passionate about what you do.
Presenter asks
5:41Should we embrace the catwalk and everything it stands for?
Well, I think designers are starting to slightly move away from the catwalk as well. I mean, I think it's I don't think it'll ever go away because it's the best way of showing clothes. ... I think it's having attitude, courage of your own convictions, to actually wear those clothes and take that on board. ... I just think you wear clothes that suit you. ... I think it's a matter of attitude and really being positive in your outlook and saying, Actually, I can wear that.
Presenter asks
8:53What was life at home like growing up?
It was very happy. ... My father used to do the signs in the garage if it wasn't a big one, and I used to go and help him sometimes. And it was brilliant, you know, help him chalk a board and he was just such a perfectionist at what he did. And I remember his garage, where he used to brush off the excess paint off the brushes. The whole walls of the whole garage were just covered in paint, different colours, and it was just like a painting in itself. It was brilliant. And he would he made dolls' houses for you, did he? He made me a doll's house that I still have. ... Yes, still have it. It's a double fronted house with four windows and a little front door that opens and the roof comes off and the back. So I used to play with it for hours and hours. And my mother made the clothes for the little dolls in there. But I used to make a lamp out of a a screw upside down with a toothpaste cap on it, and that was a little lampshade.
The keepsakes
The book
Paul Scott
It was a toss up between the quick guardian crosswords that we do every morning. But I read this book many, many years ago and I just love that whole colonial life.
The luxury
I'm wearing it and I've worn it since the age of twenty. I never go out without it.
Presenter asks
17:17How did you begin your small fashion business?
Well, I used to make all my own clothes after leaving college, and clothes for friends satin jackets, sequins ... Lurex, yes. Fabrics that actually you wouldn't normally wear a jacket in, or trousers. And a friend of mine used to wear my clothes and she had a friend who had a shop called Countdown in the King's Road. ... And they said, Oh, I love your jacket So I took some of my jackets along and they bought. So I thought, Well, maybe if they're interested other shops, I chose shops that I thought might be interesting in my clothes. And when I first got orders and you know,'cause I had to find money from somewhere, my mother gave me three hundred pounds to start and the bank and her with that first support. And the whole thing started from there, really.
Presenter asks
22:51What was the sensation when your business collapsed?
Relief. It was a sense of relief in a way. I never thought it would happen. You know, I could see me going on for ever and ever being a designer. But ... I think if you go through that for a year or so, and it was a real struggle, and that is what ... I can't pay the bills. I didn't know. And, well, it turned out really well.
Presenter asks
26:16Do you tell your students about the tough realities of the fashion industry?
Yeah. Yes, we do. And we have I mean at college at Royal College we used to have um other designers coming in, talk about the pitfalls and and it's not I mean everyone thinks it's very glamorous being a d fashion designer. It's not. It's really hard work. You know, once you finish one collection you're on to the next. And you have to love it to do it. But ... Best not to be a complete fashion victim. Have other interests as well. Literally.
“I think if you look uncomfortably in something and the clothes are wearing you and you're not wearing them, it's much better to be easy and feel comfortable.”
“I remember seeing people walking on the street in my clothes, and it's it's a wonderful feeling.”
“I never thought I'm going to start my own company. I think I just gradually went into it.”
“I think if you go through that for a year or so, and it was a real struggle, and that is what ... I can't pay the bills. I didn't know. And, well, it turned out really well.”
“I never look back in regret. I don't think you can change what's happened, and you just have to go forward.”
“everyone thinks it's very glamorous being a d fashion designer. It's not. It's really hard work.”