Back in June the LadyM Presents team headed to London’s Earls Court to Graduate Fashion Week. The event showcases up and coming designers who have graduated from forty-five of the UK’s fashion schools and colleges. It is a great opportunity to see how creative minds, mixed with three years of hard work, emerges into a collection.
Buyers browse students portfolios whilst undergraduates see how the courses work and what the final results may look like at the catwalk shows and for press like us it’s about trying to find the next big designer in the fashion world.
Charlotte L Smith – on our “One to watch” list
One designer we saw at the University of East London Show who caught our eye was Charlotte L Smith. We fell in love with Charlotte’s playful Espionage collection. A delightful mixture of bright colours and nude palettes, flowing drapes and felt coats. Also a dash of patterned chiffon in shirts and high waisted bright trousers. Charlotte took inspiration from World War II, where female spies used seduction to uncover secrets as well as combining enigma prints and fighter jets. Key influences included parachutes, WW2 uniforms and femme fatales. Charlotte explained, “Women of the era are truly inspirational and interesting to me”. Prints, colour and details were created to enhance the concept with a playful, unique and modern twist.
We loved Charlotte’s collection so much that we had to get in touch with her and find out more about what she is working on and what the future holds for this talented young designer. So we sat her down, interview questions at hand and here are the results.
An interview with Charlotte L Smith
Q. What encouraged you to get into this industry and what was your route into it?
A. I’ve always wanted to get into fashion, but for me it was a dream and not something I thought I would do. I was quite academic at school and I don’t even remember making the decision to go into fashion. I think I decided to take a risk and follow my heart when I chose to embark on a fashion degree, I chose to do a degree of fashion design with marketing, to keep that academic element involved. It was a life changing journey and I am so happy to be doing something I truly love.
Charlotte L Smith, Graduate Fashion Week
Q. What is a typical working day for you?
A. At the moment I am working full time as a designer for a lovely small company. I have a lot more to learn and love new challenges. I work on my own business at every opportunity I get, researching, promoting, designing, making and sourcing. It’s a hard balance but I have to make it work!
Q. Where do you get your ideas from for your collections and where do you source materials from?
A. My ideas are usually based on something that really interests me in the world and then I research and use modern and on trend sources to link it all together until I have a totally inspired and unique concept that I am proud of. I love wandering the streets of London visiting shops, museums, galleries, picking up bits on the way that relates to my concept and using it all to design a collection that stands out but has commercial prospects.
Q. How do you decide what will be featured in your collection, how do you predict trends?
A. Deciding on the final outfits is a hard and long process. In total I probably designed over 200 pieces, narrowing ideas and developing them until I chose a final 10 that represented every part of the concept. From there choosing my 6 favourites to produce for the show wasn’t such a hard feat. I was almost obvious in my mind by that point. As much as trends interest me, I feel I don’t bow to conventional trends when designing my collections. I look to trends more when designing more commercial ranges but for catwalk collections I want to create my own trend, I want to be able to design and design collections that lead on and are inspired by my own trend for different target audiences and seasons. I don’t want it to be a fast fashion inspired collection that has no longevity, I want it to last and evolve!!
Q. Who is your target audience and who would you love to see with one of your dresses?
A. I think the target audience for this collection is 20-30 year old quirky women, although I do feel that each outfit represents a different emotion, reflecting many types of powerful and playful femme fatales. It is very hard to choose one person i’d like to see most wearing one of my dresses. I think parts of this collection would suit Dita Von Tease whilst other parts would look great on Rihanna, Jessie J or Katy Perry!!
Q. Have you seen the fashion industry or trends change in the last few years?
A. Yes, fast fashion has taken over the past few years and trends are forever changing, but i feel that it is starting to slow back down and customers are very much looking for more value from an item, wanting the whole package and wanting to relate to a brand if they are going to spend. Its much more personal.
Q. How important do you think internships are in fashion nowadays and what is your ultimate internship?
A. I think that internships and student placements are invaluable! experience is the biggest part of the fashion industry, its real life and teaches you a huge amount. I have had great experience through internships but there is more we can do as an industry to make a difference to nurturing talent, fairly.
Q. What is next for Charlotte L Smith? What are your goals for 2012?
A. I am planning to do a few shows in 2012, Im currently designing and developing more commercial ranges of Espionage and plan to grow Charlotte L Smith into a lifestyle brand. I hope to gain stockists as I grow. I just want to spread the word and share my ideas, its so exciting!
Make sure you keep up to date with Charlotte’s work by following her on twitter and facebook and you can read more about Graduate Fashion Week with our previous feature.