Rebecca Morter: BA (Hons) Fashion Design and Development, Marie Gallagher: BA (Hons) Fashion Contour, Helena Dillon: BA (Hons) Cordwainers Accessories: Product Design & Development.
During our graduate season, here on the LCF blog we are showcasing some of the newly graduated designers. Today we present an interview with Marie Gallagher from BA (Hons) Fashion Contour, whose designs appeared on the catwalk on the 1st of July.
LCF asked: What was the best thing about studying at LCF?
Marie Gallagher: The whole experience of being around your tutors and other students. means that you get so many influences and different outlooks that it really opens up your fashion perspective. In general, my second year was the best thing for me because it taught me as a designer to be very commercial, but still be creative as well. I think that’s what LCF gets you to do very well. You can go out into the fashion business but you can still be creative.
LCF: Have you done any work experience during your studies?
MG: The Fashion Business Resource Studio helped organise my placement year at Triumph in Switzerland. I worked in brand management, so it’s a little bit of a contrast to what we do on the course. It was just such a different experience for me but I really learnt a lot. We are far more design driven on the course, so it was really about bringing it back into branding. I learnt a lot more about merchandising, range planning, which has been really helpful in my final year when you are setting up your own brand and structuring your own product range.
LCF: What would you say makes you stand out from the crowd?
MG: I think having this background working in brand management as I think the branding side of things is completely essential now and I sort of think that should come before the design process, so I think that means that my designs become very relevant as I’ve sort of got this awareness of the market. Specifically in terms of design, I’m very particular, which really helps with a lingerie course as everything is tiny and so I’m very good at the finishing, which I think really adds to the overall look of the lingerie
I tend to veer away completely from silk satin and lace just because I think that it is so oversaturated in lingerie – there are more fabrics out there that can be used. I think some of the best pieces that I’ve done have been more coincidentally I tend to go for sheer fabrics and sort of layer them and use a lot of different trims to sort of combine the trims within design and so it’s not just something chucked on the top.
LCF: What is an important aspect of your design process?
MG: For me, with lingerie I think the most important thing is your shapes and the lines that you are using because it is a product that is going right to the body; it has to be flattering. It can still be contemporary, it can still be different and it can still challenge what’s happened before, but the lines have really got to flow with the body. That is where I always start with design – getting the silhouettes and the style lines in.
LCF: Do you have any future plans?
MG: Yes, I’m going to be focusing my job search on something in brand management; definitely staying within the lingerie industry because that is the sort of product I really love. But, I am really open to seeing what’s out there, especially because it is a new course, I think different things could be popping up, so I’ll just wait and see what happens really.
In the future I would like to start my own label but I think spending some time working in brand management is going to be something that I can gain more transferable skills from as opposed to design or product development.
LCF: What advice would you give to future students?
MG: I think the thing that has really benefited me in the last couple of years is reading loads. You always get your reading lists at the beginning of the term and you’ll flick through and just look at the pictures and you don’t get much out of it. But, if you really read, everything that your tutors are telling you starts to really make sense.
Remember to just look around as well. Try not to get too caught up in the course, that’s quite easy to do. Go out, go to exhibitions, just absorb everything, and be like a sponge. When you’re a student it’s the best time to do so, as you’ve got so much free time while you’re researching. Absorb it all and read everything you can.
Image Credits
- Designs by Rebecca Morter: BA (Hons) Fashion Design and Development.
- Contour by Marie Gallagher: BA (Hons) Fashion Contour.
- Bags by Helena Dillon: BA (Hons) Cordwainers Accessories: Product Design & Development.
- Photography by James Rees
- Creative Direction by Rob Phillips
- Model: Ellie at Select.
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