Katie studied Fashion Knit BA and MA at Central St Martins and she completed this in March this year. During her time at the university she had an internship year, this consisted of 6 months at John Galliano in Paris. She got great hands on, one to one creative experience, making samples and attending client fittings. Then Katie went to New York for 3 months to work with Diane Von Furstenberg, the industry in New York is completely different to Paris and the UK as it is led by marketing. She then went on to Australia for 2 months to work for a company called Romance Was Born, again a very different industry where creativity is the main focus and money isn’t an issue.
After graduating Katie became a freelance designer, one of the designers Katie has worked for is Mark Fast, he knits with Lycra this makes the fabrics aesthetic totally different! Mark styles celebrities such as Rita Ora and Rihanna. Being a freelance designer who’s target market is very niche means that Katie gets to work with many different smaller brands.
Katie’s most recent collection, Slab City, was inspired by ‘Salvation Mountain’ – America. Initially seen in a film called Bombay Boy, Katie loved the fun colours and obsessiveness within the ‘work’. Salvation Mountain was created by a man named Leonard Knight, it is built entirely of local adobe clay and painted with only donated paint.
To create a strong collection you must have an idea of how you want it to look as a whole collection when finished, you must know your target market and keep them in mind through your whole journey. Katie thinks of a specific ‘fictional’ character that she wants to design for, in this case for spring/summer 2014 she wanted to create the dress for a modern tribe and she had a strong vision of what this would look like. She had this vision by gathering lots of primary research which makes your designs personal to you.
Katie loves working with knit because it is very hands on which she feels gives her products more love and she gets a greater sense of accomplishment. Although it is very much more labour intensive! Another advantage with knit is that you make your own fabric so you aren’t dependant on what fabric is in fashion and in the shops; this makes it more personal to you. Katie taught herself to knit, by teaching yourself it means that you can focus on what you want to make but you have to be very self-driven. One of the most important things to remember is to believe in what you’re designing and always have reasons why you’ve done it.
Katie brought with her some of her illustrations of her BA collection (images above) and I loved them, they were a mix of drawing and fabric pieces to show colour and pattern for her designs. Her collection was based on Native American tribal wear. She didn’t want her garments to be fitted so instead she looked into the shape of a sack and based her silhouette shape on this.
A typical day for Katie, there isn’t a typical day for Katie! Because Katie works freelance, she has no permanent position, work comes and goes and is very hit and miss so she has lots of different days. You have to take all the work you can get as you don’t know when your next job will be, this means that you get a diverse mix of jobs which can be fun!
What are Katie’s plans for the near future? At the moment Katie is planning on setting up her own label with a friend, hopefully we will see some amazing creations in February when she gets started!
What are Katie’s plans for the near future? At the moment Katie is planning on setting up her own label with a friend, hopefully we will see some amazing creations in February when she gets started!