Leather and Fur swept the catwalk when Lauren Pharoah showed off her GFW collection . This was a definite highlight of the week! So Here is our interview with this talented designer finding out all the ins and outs behind her collection and her future plans.
Tell ‘Keep The Wolf’ a little about yourself.
I'm creative, ambitious and a true perfectionist. I put my all into everything I do. I enjoy socializing with friends, watching a variety of new and old films, going to music events, reading, visiting exhibitions and places of interest and travelling.
I have been studying Fashion design since I left school, through college to my degree at University and I can certainly say that for the past five years my whole life has been about Fashion, not only through education but as a great passion of mine and has definitely influenced me in all that I do.
Tell us about your graduate collection
My 'Four and Twenty Black Birds', beautifully damaged collection is inspired by the mood between feminine innocence and the females alter ego. The soft and the harsh. The light and the dark. The tender and the rocker.
The concept grew from Gothic architecture and paintings and sullen photography, which inspired for a melancholic colour palette through tones of blacks, petrol blue, shades of grey and levels of white. My collection is about a mood and a feeling and this is often how I become inspired. I was also influenced by the traditional biker jacket and over-sized this for the female form creating an androgynous style through big silhouettes. Through feeding inspiration between opposing moods I used a variety of contrasting fabrics to emphasize this. Such as distressed leather against fully glass beaded fabric and knit printed chiffon. The rich textures in my collection contributed greatly in setting the mood. Other fabrics and textures I used included, Python skin, patent and various leathers, fringed and studded leather and origin assured fox fur.
Talk us through the process you went through to to your final collection
I spent around four months working on my final collection, through the initial idea and concept to final manufacture, working extremely hard to guarantee a successful outcome. My favorite part of the process is design, through the inspiration and researching, concept and mood development and designing the pieces and range for my collection.
Its hard to choose our favorite garment !
We still can't choose whether its the tassel fringed or the fox tail trimmed jacket . What Is your favorite Garment ?
Those are my two favorite garments also. I have to say though my fox tail, over-sized biker jacket is my favorite garment. It is the first piece of my collection that went from initial idea and sketch to final garment and I think that plays a huge part in my decision as this continued to fuel the fire, it was with me from the beginning and I just feel the strong silhouette and statement also makes it a favorite.
Where can ‘keep the wolf’ readers buy your clothes?
I initially would like to keep a lot of the pieces from my final collection, however De Montfort University will be having a pop up shop off Londons Carnaby street, on the 1st floor of Kingly Court from the 12th to the 21st July, where I intend to reproduce some of the pieces from my collection, such as the distressed leather tshirts, vests and dresses to sell amongst other peoples work from my University.
Where would you like to be selling your future collections ?
The ultimate goal is to have my own little company where I would be designing for my own label so that would be the perfect venue to showcase my work but I would also love to be selling my future collections to aspiring places like Dover St market in London.
What does the future hold for Lauren Pharoah?
Well for the moment I just want to jump straight into a career in fashion to gain experience and knowledge and am happy to be involved in any creative job I can get my hands on. To then progress through the elements of the industry to ultimately become a fashion designer and move forward and excel in this fast pace, contagious, forever moving fashion environment and culture .
We too would love to see Lauren selling at Dover st market and would be one of many people queuing for her cutting edge designs sure to be a huge success in any designer store.
http://www.artsthread.com/p/laurenpharoah