Head of College Office Displays Student Work Tackling Fashion and Religion

The dress currently on display at the HOC office is from her most recent project entitled “Earthen Vessels” which explores the complex relationship between fashion and religion. Prompted by the revolution offset by the murder of Mahsa Amini in Iran, Emily also reflected on her own personal experiences within Christianity in the design process. The creation of the dress involved studying archetypal head coverings such as the burqa and hats worn by Christians at church, culminating into a fusion of traditional millinery techniques with touches of tailoring.

LCF Stories talked to Emily to learn more about her inspirations, unusual work process, eventful journey to LCF, and more.

When did you first feel that fashion might be the right path for you?

I've always loved doing anything creative, and at school my favourite subject was textiles. I was actually choosing between fashion or interior architecture, but after my foundation year, I realised that I've always leaned towards fashion more.

Once you realised that fashion is the way to go, how did you learn to sew?

At school, but my grandma used to be a seamstress. I never really knew her very well because she passed away when I was quite young but maybe that’s where the interest naturally came from. I always wish I got to know her more, and had the opportunity to learn from her and to show her my work.

Currently, you’re a student in the MA Womenswear course. Can you tell me more about your journey to LCF?

I did my bachelor's for three years at the Norwich University of the Arts. I applied for my master's but decided to defer it and after graduation, I worked for an online womenswear ready-to-wear label for eight months. I then took up an internship opportunity at Maison Lemarié in Paris, an opportunity I won through a competition I entered at the end of my bachelor's. Working at Maison Lemarié for five weeks and seeing all the craftspeople who’ve worked there for many years was just amazing. They craft flowers and feather work for Chanel and also work for other haute-couture clients like Dior and Balenciaga. The internship was at “Le 19M”, where Karl Lagerfeld started to preserve the craft. All of the different Maisons that Chanel uses were put together in one building, each having its own specialist craft. While there, I saw thousands of couture textile samples - It was like a library full of the most stunning textile samples you can imagine. Although my own work to date tends to focus on silhouette and form over intricate textiles, the experience of being there and the incredible attention to detail have definitely influenced me by reinforcing my values of craftsmanship and quality. At the end of my internship, I returned from Paris and started my master'sx course at LCF.

Your design inspirations over the years have included Japanese theatre, art deco, Leigh Bowery and more. Where do you usually look for inspiration?

I love going to art exhibitions, or any exhibitions for that matter. I prefer to look outside of fashion for inspiration. I usually only look at fashion for actual garment archetype references. I also love anything that has something to do with shape or structure. Sometimes I come to the library to flick through books and magazines, but I’m not so methodical when it comes to inspiration. It’s more about building a collection of inspirations.

How come you try to avoid fashion for inspiration?

It’s very hard to take inspiration for fashion from fashion – or at least contemporary fashion. I do use archives to study historical garment archetypes. But it would be too similar and very challenging to look at someone else’s contemporary influence in fashion and then come up with something original. With contemporary fashion, you do need to be aware of what other people are doing as it can be frustrating if you have an idea, but then you realise someone else has already done it. But I do look at fashion for how things are made and notice little features or interesting details that I could transfer into my own design language.

The recurring themes in your work are deconstruction, movement, and exaggeration. How do they relate to your design aesthetic? Why not simply make pretty dresses?

It's just what excites me. I do appreciate stereotypically ‘pretty’ dresses, but I find it more exciting to design garments with interesting silhouettes, structure, and form.

On your Instagram, you’ve posted lots of videos of you draping and being in your creative element. What is your design process like? Sketch first, drape after or vice versa?

A lot of those videos actually started in lockdown. I couldn’t use the uni studio space or equipment anymore, so I had to find new ways of working and staying inspired. So, that is how the filming came about because I enjoy playing with the fabric and the movement it can have – and we did not have access to the university mannequins. When you’re draping there are constant iterations that you can take, sketch and then develop. It’s quite intuitive – you just sort of do it. For me, the garment becomes alive when it’s on the body, so when you’re draping on yourself, I find it feels more interactive - more so than doing it on the mannequin. This was a process that I discovered in lockdown but still find useful in my practice now. So, as a starting point, I really like draping, but my process includes a lot of quick sketching as I develop ideas.

How important is experimentation in your designs? And how about the wider fashion landscape?

I think you can't do it without experimentation. You need to experiment to come up with new, original ideas. For me, experimenting is the most fun and enjoyable part, it’s more about the ideas I encounter in the process than aiming for a set final outcome. Through experimenting with things I discover aspects that I wouldn't think of if I were simply sketching. I would call it happy accidents. And with draping, I see things that I wouldn’t be able to see otherwise.

I noticed that Jonathan Miller’s film Alice (1966) was a source of inspiration for one of your previous collections. Who are you designing for? Does this person live in a wonderland or the real world?

That particular collection was about mental health in lockdown, so it was more about creating for the world after COVID. It was very much about being inside your own head – the whole project was called “Quixotism – a dress code to Wonderland”. Quixotism means an idealism without regard to practicality. Considering it was related to everything that had happened during the lockdown, that inspiration was particularly for a world in which things didn't make sense and about speculating how it could look after.

Each of my collections has a concept, and there are always common threads that run throughout my work. For the most part, I am designing for the real world, but as a designer, you develop your own language and with that, you are creating a world of your own. Part of why I'm doing the masters course is to develop my own design language more, and to focus on garments at different levels of my range – I enjoy making couture but want to also develop more ready-to-wear pieces.

What are your views on sustainability as a young and emerging designer? Is it accessible or impossible?

It's really important to be as sustainable as possible from every angle within the process and product and, as a young designer, this can be very difficult to always achieve. I always use deadstock materials and leftover fabrics from previous projects as much as I can.  Developments in sustainable fabrics can be more expensive, although there are a lot more options available now. For a new designer like me currently at university, the most affordable and more sustainable option is often using deadstock materials to stop them from going to waste. To increase the sustainability of my brand, I’m aiming to have my higher-end pieces, which might not be worn as often, available to rent.

In the past, you’ve won the Arts of Fashion 2021 and Anne Tyrrell 2020 awards, interned at Maison Lemarié, Ciment Pleating and elsewhere, and I’m certain there are plenty more accolades to come in the future. How does recognition help you as an emerging designer?

It is motivational - but can also be scary. The industry is so large and there is a lot of competition - I never expect anything but do everything because I enjoy it. When I won the Arts of Fashion Competition, it was late in the evening (it was aired from Belgium) and I was sitting at home in a dressing gown with a cup of tea – when I was watching and then found out I won! Winning the Anne Tyrrell Award was also unexpected, especially as lockdown had only just started and we were just adjusting to trying to work from home – I got a call from my tutor who was very excited and told me that my entry had won!  I do the work for myself because I get satisfaction out of it, but recognition is always exciting.

Can you tell me more about the dress that is showcased in the Head of College’s office?

It was from my first project on the master's. My project was titled “Earthen Vessels”. Lots of my inspiration comes from my own experiences as a Christian, and growing up in a Christian family. I’ve also been really interested in following what has been happening in Iran following the tragic murder of Mahsa Amini and the consequent revolution protests.  ‘Earthen Vessels’ is a project about freedom of choice, and I  have been looking into ideas around the relationship between religion and fashion. I did a lot of research around archetypical head coverings including the burqa and hats worn by some Christians in church. Hats have also been a huge source of inspiration in this project and in some of my previous work too. In some Christian churches women wear hats – and this was something I'd always seen growing up. So, I started looking at millinery techniques and thinking about how I could translate them through a fashion context. You can see that the structure of the dress is made using a technique with millinery canvas and millinery wire and that the gathered volume is reminiscent of the burqa. I also thought a lot about what modesty means for different women and how it relates to religion and fashion.