 |
| Lou Dalton Spring Summer 14 |
S
Tell us a bit about how you started out.
Lou Dalton
I left school at 16. I come from a little town
called Market Drayton in Shropshire. I wasn’t particularly interested in school and decided to leave with a handful of GCSE’s to take up an apprenticeship with a bespoke tailor which was part of a scheme called YTS, the Youth Training Scheme. It was a fantastic opportunity and I decided to
take that because I didn’t feel like school was offering me anything.
L
I didn’t have the desire to go on any further in Higher Education so I chose to take up this role.
I wasn’t really sure at that the time if I was being drawn by a yearning to be in fashion. I did
not know what it was really like because the tailor I was working for, called Arthur Pardington,
was producing shooting gear for the likes of Purdey
and Sons in London. I was exposed to everything at a very formal level and not really fashion
design related. I suppose the only way I was exposed
to a more glamorous side of fashion was when I was in a doctor’s surgery and seeing a Vogue
magazine on a table.
So I chose to do this and was not really sure how it was going to balance out. I learnt to be like
a sponge, as if it were a part of my DNA. I yearned for fashion and working for a man as talented as Arthur, being exposed to all the skills I feel are really important in fashion, i.e. design, pattern cutting and construction, at that age was incredible really.
When I started working for him, I was a YTS apprentice at the age of 16 and at that time I had two groups of friends. One of which was quite rebellious and the other group that was very much into study and pursuing what was seen as the normal route through education, GCSEs, ‘A’ Levels, Foundation, which may have been the right way to do things.
S
You’re obviously a menswear designer. Why menswear when most designers tend to veer towards women’s wear?
L
It was just because at the time I started working for Pardy Clothing it was pretty much all that was going through the door. That’s what I was being exposed to so it just felt like second nature. I was always very much a tomboy and always gravitated to that kind of thing. It was being exposed to these amazing cloths, Prince of Wales checks or shooting Tweeds and that kind of thing. It just felt so right and as you say I was a woman in a male dominated area of work but it didn’t really come into it. I felt that I can do this.
S
Tell us a little about your skills, you know the kind of skills you need for designing men’s or women’s wear.
L
It’s quite interesting because I think sometimes what people believe fashion to be is very different from the reality. The design aspect feels very minimal in comparison to creating and designing a collection and for me the practical side is key over everything. Having those skills; being able to sew from an early age, construct and understand how a garment is put together, being able to then pattern cut that, then develop that, makes you a better and stronger designer because you know the skeleton form. Instead of just sitting there and being able to design a pretty picture you can go into a factory and explain to them exactly what you want. To me that’s the core of it and having those skills I was kind of hell bent on that. In a way, I suppose, I came in from a more practical angle.
I get asked myself, how do you transfer that into design? You have this little narrative in your
mind and it’s just a process that comes like a natural form really.
S
Talk us through the process. Some people start with the cloth, others the sketch or some other form of inspiration. What is your process?
L
When I first started this, and it has evolved although I have less time now, I used to be able to go off to a gallery. You also might be walking around town or you’ll be on holiday and there will be an idea. That for me is a starting point, a concept which is integral to building a collection. Then I start to think about the colour, the fabric and obviously start researching depending on the season, whether it is Autumn Winter or Spring Summer. Then you start to build a mood board.
There’s a constant link from the aesthetic to the fabric and then we will start to think about a form and what kind of silhouette and obviously, although it’s your own aesthetic, I do a lot of research into past collections which worked for us. I also look at things which have historically sold for us and think actually I quite liked that and maybe I should touch on that again. You have
to be aware of trends and what other designers are doing. It’s important to do that, but not
necessarily emulate it because you want a point of difference that makes you stand out from
everybody else.
I think it’s also important to look at designers from the past so you can pull from that and a good
body of research is core to a good collection.
S
How do you maintain the Lou Dalton aesthetic?
L
It’s quite difficult sometimes and of late, well over the last four seasons, I chose to work with a stylist, because sometimes you’re in your own little bubble. You can get quite caught up in that and it’s very easy to do what you want to do and actually ignore what is right for your customer
or brand that you’re trying to build. Even though we’re not on the same level as Dries Van Noten or Raf Simons who also have a strong client base, we need to able to build and get folk on board, and as a consumer we need to be able to build an identity. If you go back to the drawing board and try to redesign the wheel then any client that has come on one season may drop off the next. So to me it is important that there is a thread. To make your collection seem relevant as a young brand, buyers want to support you but find it difficult unless they can see it fitting alongside the bigger brands which they are stocking.
You started five years ago. You’re selling internationally. Is it important that you are a British designer selling something that has that heritage?
 |
| Lou Dalton Spring Summer 14 |
L
I used to think it was really important but as a consumer and designer I like products that feel honest and well constructed and live up to what has been said about them. I think that the feedback we have had to date is that the product stands alone. We’re not having to force the fact that I’m British. I do think it is important, especially in Japan and equally the in the States.
I think folk want value for money and if the quality doesn’t back that up it doesn’t matter what
you do or who you are, they just start to move away from it, they’re not interested.
S
How involved are you in the complete process? Do you see everything through?
L
I was talking to my assistant the other day actually, saying that the admin side, looking after the cash flow, I find really quite frustrating because I enjoy the practical side. If times were harsh and we had to bring it all in house I could do absolutely everything. That’s because it is part of my DNA. I know if a factory is trying to pull the wool over my eyes then I’m there straight away.
At the end of the day you’re bartering constantly to get a good price and quality and unfortunately some designers don’t care and just want to get the product out there. If I want longevity in the industry I have to back it up.
S
Tell us a bit about your Knitwear? I know a lot of it is made in England.
L
It is. It’s all made in the UK. Originally folk used to touch on it and say Lou Dalton Knitwear designer but actually I’m not. I just have a good understanding of knit and what I like. I think the taste level is more to do with it. I used to work for a Japanese company called United Arrows and I was asked to produce a range of knitwear for them in Shetland and Scotland. It was great actually. They did all the ground work and I just had to go visit them and tell them what we wanted. I built up this portfolio of certain factories and a great relationship with them. When I
did start Lou Dalton I was able to tap into that resource. Then I work with a lady in the South of
England who is phenomenal. She’ll then do all the swatches after I have briefed her. This is
the design development because I can’t actually physically knit. That’s how I work.
 |
| Lou Dalton Spring Summer 14 |
S
A lot of labels have started to introduce bespoke or limited edition labels. Is that something you might do?
L
There are two more stores in London which we would like to sell to but we don’t. For one
in particular the collection is not right for them but their proposal to us was to create a
special, something exclusive to them; a T-Shirt line or something like that. It’s important because it’s one way we might be able to do something that doesn’t compromise the Lou Dalton aesthetic.
S
Is it important to be able to use social media?
L
It is important. We get a lot of coverage on Blogs, there are a lot of bloggers out there. A lot of backstage footage is so instant and it’s great that it reaches so many people, so fast. I have great PR and they will get me to answer questions and then it will be fired out to the blogger and they’ll put it up. I would rather be on the sewing machine or doing the more practical things I suppose.
S
Tell me a little bit about the preparation for Fashion Week.
L
It sounds all so glamorous but the core of what we do is to get clothes on people’s backs, to get that chap on the street to buy what we do, and that whole process behind that is to produce a collection that a store will come and buy. We have just completed that, so obviously the collection for wholesale isn’t quite ready for fashion week because there are a few bells and whistles that you want to add to draw press to get a little bit of attention. When I wholesale a collection I don’t produce twenty one pairs of trousers, it’s more like eight, so we have to produce additional pieces. That’s the first thing we do. A collection comes back from Paris and I sit down with my stylist and work out the finishing touches. Then we’ll start considering boys who we’re going to have model. This is important because getting the aesthetic across in a couple of minutes is really quite tough. If you have the wrong chap it can make a massive difference. We get a lot of support. The British Fashion Council have been extremely supportive and so have Top Man. When I first started it felt quite daunting but now I say bring it on and we’ll have a go.
S
How different is the collection you show to the collection you sell?
L
Not too different. I know there are various designers out there, huge brands, who have separate collections but we’re not a big enough machine to do that. I can’t afford to do it, I have a very tight budget and I quite often say to the stylist you can have one special jacket because it’s all I can allow. It’s more accessories that we add than garments really.
S
Tell us a bit about one of your earlier collections
L
I always try to have a thread running through. One of my last collections had a sense of military. The concept was basically this. I grew up in Shropshire and I spent a lot of time at my
grandmothers’ farm and during the Second World War there were a lot of farm estates in the UK. There were Military bases built in and around them and my Grandmother’s farm was like that. The long and the short of it was that a G.I. comes over and falls in love with a land girl and he doesn’t want to go back and he goes AWOL. It was about her disguising the fact that this boy is living there and she is pulling from her father’s wardrobe. So it was a kind of oversized military feel.
S
How do you select the colours?
L
Once again I work with a mill in the north and we are sponsored by this mill. I go up every season and I go through their archive and collection and quite often, along with the concept in mind, that will become the foundation to the colour palette. Very often it’s about gut instinct and what feels right for Lou Dalton.
 |
| Lou Dalton Spring Summer 14 |
Photographs by www.catwalking.com
.
No comments:
Post a Comment