JULIAN AND SOPHIE’s collections don’t really follow themes.
They are ‘conceptual’.
But not clever-clever ‘high-brow conceptual’, but conceptual for the fun of it.
They are sort of ‘design games’.
Having a bit of fun in the studio after work hours.
They are all about the activity and enjoyment of making things in cloth, and using paints, and using sewing machines and things.
It's a bit like the game of ‘Consequences’ , or ‘Chinese Whispers’ or ‘Pass the Parcel’: the clothes evolve through a process that is made deliberately entertaining for the designers.
The clothes are passed backwards and forwards, added to, subtracted from, new techniques are tried out, its all just to find out “what happens if i do this or that”.

So with this Spring-Summer 2003 collection the ‘theme’ (if you can call it that) is a bit influenced by home interior decoration, weekend DIY, and evening-class workshops.
It consists of elaborate pattern cutting and decorative textile techniques, executed in a playfully indiscriminate and haphazard manner:
A head-on collision between intricacy and immediacy.
With this collection, JULIAN AND SOPHIE aim to show their audience the preciousness of masterful couture techniques, let-rip in the hands of amateur enthusiasts:
Both light and refined, and at times ‘all fingers and thumbs’.
There’s a fair amount of orange in the collection,
polka-dots, camouflage
a reworked jeans range
greens, soft pastels, indigo’s and black.
Julian’s intricate cutting, Sophie’s abstract graphic embroidery
And once they’re done they set to work on the clothes with spray paint, stencils, rubber stamps, appliqué, bleach, and potato prints
just to ' push the boat out a bit '.

show credits

show sponsored by Waterford Wedgwood

hair by James Rowe for VISION +44(0)20 7247 6842

make-up by Alexsandra Byrne for PREMIER

Show Production by John Walford

catwalk photography by ian gillett