( Interview for ‘F’ Magazine )
· What is your age and nationality?
I am 33, and was born in Wales. I’ve lived in England since the age of 8.
· What got you interested in fashion in the first place?
In 1987 whilst at school in Worthing, West Sussex, I decided rather suddenly to give up my dreams of becoming a Computer Programmer/ Archaeologist/ Chef, and instead become a ‘fashion designer’. I had always been into Art and subcultural music (punk/mod/skinhead/goth) , but this sudden decision was due in part to my older brothers influence (he was a very cool New Romantic whom I used to go to nightclubs with & emulate), and also because I wished to escape the small seaside town I was living in which seemed at the time very restricting.
So I left school and went as far north as I could go to Newcastle Upon Tyne, studying fashion for 8 years doing diplomas, BA’s & masters degrees. Then I went to work for Jasper Conran as his right hand man. Two years later I started my own label: nothing nothing.
· Who are your fashion icons?
My girlfriends, friends, collaborators & students.
I really feed off the people around me. It’s their look, mannerisms & style that interest me far more than those of models & manufactured celebrity.
· Who is your favourite fashion designer?
When I was a student I was really mad about Comme des Garcons. They are the most enduring label I have favoured. They inspired me to want to invent new ways of cutting.
Now I tend to like different things about different designers: vintage Martin Margiela tailoring, Preen’s precise use of fabrics & detail, Alexander McQueen’s showpieces, Junya Watanabe’s playful cutting, Galiano’s make up & hair, John Rocha’s embroideries (by Karen Nicol), Bora Aksu’s control of fabric weights & textures, Aluma & the Tailor’s intricate neck pieces.
But it’s hard for me to single out one thing as being better than another.
Now it is the designers & students around me who receive my favouritism, support & praise, because I see them really living it and growing, and I feel part of that process.
· Is there anyone that you would really like to collaborate with?
For next season I will be collaborating with a whole bunch of talented people, so I don’t really think much about ‘dream collaborators’. I have no interest at-all in working with big name designers like McQueen or Comme or Stella or anyone like that, as it wouldn’t make much sense. I’m pretty happy working with the people I know and have strong connections with: the people I want to support.
I would like to teach Kate Moss how to cut a dress. That would be interesting & cool.
I could teach her in a couple of hours over drinks & then she could launch her own label.
That’s more of a fantasy collaboration though!
· What is your must have fashion item for this Spring/Summer?
If we are talking which labels are hot right now, I’d say Basso & Brooke for their print dresses, Aluma & the Tailor for their neck pieces, Serfontaine for their jeans, La Petite Salope for their chiffon dresses, and Ashish’s eclectic mix of sequins & print.
If we are talking about me, I’d say Blackberry mobile phones, Apple Mac G5’s, Levi’s anti-fit 501’s, tops by i-be009, cashmere hooded tops by Gap, and a bespoke tailored coat by Jonathan Quearney.
· Where are your favourite places to shop?
Gap, HMV, Borders, Selfridges, St.Johns Bread&Wine, Woolworths and Spitalfields & Brick Lane Sunday Markets.
· What is your best ever fashion buy?
Jeans: numerous pairs. They last for ages & grow in character over time.
· What has drawn you to the world of lecturing?
Initially I needed extra money to pay for food, electricity & shelter: having your own fashion label can be an expensive hobby!
But the more I got into teaching, the more important it became to the way I design. You begin to see your techniques and concepts reflected and become influential.
It really gives you an amazing buzz when you show a group of students a new way of cutting, and turn their expectations on its head.
I started teaching at Central St.Martins and the Royal College of Art, and ended up touring the country teaching at 6 colleges. Working with really inspirational tutors like Janet Lance-Hughs at Central St.Martins has really made me appreciate the importance good education.
· What is the idea behind the new fashion course?
I was asked to set up the new BA(Hons) Fashion Programme at the University of Hertfordshire 4 months ago, and the course is now up & running.
Because the course was a completely new addition to the university’s portfolio, I had a lot of scope to create a course that was fresh and forward thinking.
I continue to design under my own labels & collaborate on projects with industry, so this contact makes me want to keep the course as relevant as possible to the real world.
The fashion industry like clothing itself is in constant redevelopment & change, and universities have to stay on their toes not only to keep up with it, but also to anticipate its future needs. There is far too much emphasis in education on training students to be clothes makers, when there are a huge number of creative jobs available within design: styling, marketing, manufacturing, visual merchandizing, buying and selling.
Fashion intersects with many other fields such as music, film, writing, photography, graphics, internet, art, and commerce, and students need to appreciate the creative opportunities available within these areas so that they are not just trying to emulate the celebrity of McQueen, Galliano & Stella McCartney.
The emphasis of the new course at Hertfordshire is on finding new retail avenues for design, so selling and marketing are seen as a creative pursuit, and as the course grows I will be seeking out industry partners who share this vision to work with us.
· Why have you decided to ditch the traditional end of year show?
Over 3000 Fashion students graduate every year in the UK, and over a 1000 show at Graduate Fashion Week in London. The annual pantomime of fashion shows at GFW gives each student designer perhaps 60 seconds of catwalk time to catch the attention of press, buyers and employers, and I think this is a very hit or miss opportunity. If you look at London Fashion Week you now see the off-schedule fashion shows challenging the dominance of the official on-schedule shows in terms of the quantity of designers showing and the creativity of their presentation, and I believe students should be thinking a lot harder about the way in which they present their clothes, and how to gain maximum attention from the fashion industry.
Catwalk is a convention that does not suit the sheer numbers of students now using it, there is simply far too much on show to possibly assimilate.
I think break-away ‘off-schedule’ student fashion presentations would be far more exciting & relevant to what is now happening at London Fashion Week, as would presentations that involve new multi-media marketing & retailing experiences.
Spending 6 months perfecting a collection designed to look good on a catwalk runway in font of an audience of parents and overwhelmed industry figures, only perpetuates unrealistic dreams and aspirations. Too many students graduate disillusioned that they have not found instant fame & fortune, not knowing where they fit into the industry, or where they go next.
My first decision at Hertfordshire was to remove the fashion show at the end of the course.
Instead I would very much like the students to have a central London shop for a week, in which there is the opportunity to have boutique style shows, shop window promotion, retail displays, graphic signage, advertising, photography, video installation, promotional literature, music, industry private views, a store opening party for the press, and most importantly: the opportunity to actually sell things.
It changes the focus of what a collection is completely.
· What is the idea behind the boutique?
If students are given the opportunity to visualize their designs as products on rails intended for sale from the outset, then the need to heighten the selling experience & grab the attention of ‘customers’ will directly involve them in a real-to-life business experience.
It’s important that the show at the end of the course smoothes the students transition into industry, rather than leaving them fearing entry into ‘the real world’.
Graduation can be pretty disorientating for a fashion student.
· Where will it be based?
In the coolest part of London in 2007, when the first year of students graduate.
If it were to happen right now, it would take place in Shoreditch, but I’ll have to see how fashionable London changes, and how relationships develop with retail partners and sponsors.
· Is there a time frame on how long each student will be part of the boutique?
I think a 5-day week would be the most suitable time frame, and to include 1st & 2nd year students products selling alongside the graduating 3rd year would allow for the development of real-life retail projects throughout the 3-year programme.
· Is there anything else that differentiates this course from other fashion courses?
As I no longer have the time to teach at other universities, Hertfordshire is now the only course in the country where I am able to teach my own method of pattern cutting called: ‘Subtraction Cutting’.
The students are taught various methods of garment construction, both traditional and new wave, and this mix of techniques allows them to find different ways around different problems. My own cutting method is very freehand, with an inverted logic seeing as it deals with the design of empty space within a garment, rather than the design of outward surface. A lot of students put off by the mathematical side of pattern cutting find this method helpful to learn.
I like to demonstrate fast & loose ways of cutting that can be picked up by anyone, irrespective of whether they are technically skilled or not. An amateurs approach to cutting often produces the most interesting results, because they experiment more freely without thinking that anything is impossible. If you only learn traditional methods of construction it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking think there is a right and a wrong way to construct a garment, and this cuts down on the possibilities of experimentation and chance discovery. The more construction techniques you master, the more creative the technical process can become, and the more creative you are a technician the more opportunities there are of discovering completely new ways of designing.
· You have always had an intriguing way of looking at fashion, such as sending out invitations to shows that didn’t exist to create a buzz, and selling your first collection, Nothing Nothing, on eBay. Where does the desire and inspiration to be so different come from?
If I saw the fashion industry as a perfect and beautiful thing that I only have love for, then I would lose the motivation to question and challenge it.
The future holds so many possibilities to change things and make things better, so I think I will continue sticking my neck out for the foreseeable future.
The only motivation I have for continuing to design is a belief in the possibility that completely new things will soon be happening, and isn’t that an exciting thing to witness and be part of ?
If I were doing fashion for fame and fortune I would have given up by now.
· Your last Spring/Summer collection was created in front of the audience at London Fashion Week, what are your plans for this season?
Last season we decided to stop our Julian & Sophie label, and we plan to gather together all our existing garments & patterns and bury them in an airtight container on the South Downs for 20 years. We will dig them up in the future & exhibit them…. if we can remember where we buried them.
Some sort of map might be a good idea.
In 2005 we are launching a new collaborative label that is all about our designer friends and the people around us with whom we live our lives.
The label is dedicated to celebrating each other, rather than making avante-garde garments for models & celebrities that we have no real connection with.
Each garment will be created specifically for another member of the group to wear, in their particular size, and for a particular occasion they would like to wear it to.
Two of each garment will be made, one as a gift to the wearer, the other becoming a permanent sample in the range.
All pieces will be available to buy all of the time, so they become classics, to which we add new styles each season.
It is a movement away from manufactured celebrity:
Real clothes created for the most talented people we know.
What are your plans for the future of Julian & Sophie?
Sophie will be joining me of course in developing the new label:
It’s only the clothes and patterns that I’m burying:)
Words by Professor Julian Roberts