Attendees heard how creative careers develop and took away helpful tips about how to shape their own creative routes into the fashion and textile world. With a broad range of conversations covering aspects of design process, production, illustration, fashion communication and influencing, editorial and freelancing.
INDUSTRY PARTICIPANTS
Congregation is an anonymous collective of design talent who come together to challenge and experiment design processes. For this event CONGREGATION, will present their recent video From Korea With Love, directed by Emma Hamilton. A 360-degree immersive experience (duration 4 mins) seen through the Virtual Reality viewer. Members of the collective will be discussing collaboration and peer exchange whilst demonstrating the process into making their recent film work and collections.
Noel Stewart is a world-renowned Milliner. On leaving The Royal College of Art Noel established his own label, designing hats for leading fashion designers such as Mulberry, Roland Mouret, Diesel, Roksanda, Erdem, Hussein Chalayan, Richard Nicoll, Jaeger, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Holly Fulton, Sibling, Viktor & Rolf, Ryan Lo, Gareth Pugh, House of Holland, Marta Jakubowki, Charles Jeffrey and JW Anderson. His hats have been worn by Michelle Pfeiffer, Keira Knightly, Lady Gaga, Florence Welch, Kylie Minogue, Miranda Kerr, FKA Twigs, Beth Ditto, Penelope Cruz, Olivia Coleman, Sharon Stone, Sigourney Weaver, Cara Delevigne, The Duchess of Sussex wore a Noel Stewart for Givenchy hat for the wedding of Princess Eugenie.
Jodie Ruffle is a Freelance Embroidery Designer and Fashion Lecturer. After graduating, Jodie gained experience working for Jonathan Saunders, Alexander McQueen, Preen and Martine Rose. Her work is now focused on embroidery development & luxury craft. Collaborations include, Gurls’ Talk, Fashion Revolution, Ellie MacDonald, Odda Magazine, N0thing Magazine and Period Magazine, as well as ongoing design & development roles with Ashish, Mih Jeans and Kurt Geiger.
Charmaine Taylor has over 12 years in the fashion and creative industries and is Founder of SL Creatives Project. Social enterprise empowering women into employment and apprenticeships. Charmaine provides workshops for clients wanting support and advice on CV writing, interview techniques and creative portfolios.
Paul Smith Senior Knitwear Designer Helen Holmes is London based. After graduating from Leeds University and gaining experience from Alexander McQueen and Tim Ryan Knitwear, joined Paul Smith as a general Design Assistant. Five years later, Helen took the title Senior Knitwear Designer, and has since headed up the menswear and womenswear Ready-To-Wear Knitwear across the four Paul Smith lines, showing in Paris every season.
Alex Mein is an illustrator and lecturer based in London. After training in Fashion Design at Ravensbourne he freelanced as a textile and fashion designer, before roles in menswear consultancy and buying. His illustration clients include lifestyle brands such as Mulberry, Liberty London, Gap and Nike.
Kamran Rajput is Fashion Editor of Wonderland Magazine and contributing fashion editor of MAN ABOUT TOWN magazine. He studied a BA in magazine publishing at the London College of Communication, and since then has worked on main fashion stories working with young designers and artists, styling commercial to designer campaigns, as well as styling, creative consulting and even casting shows for London Men’s collections.
Louise Gray is a ‘vibrant colorist, a vivid imaginist, and an avowed individualist; three good reasons why she’s one of London’s most intriguing and exhilarating talents’ - Mark Holgate, American Vogue
Louise’s unique style and celebration of the artistic and individual has made her sought after as a designer, creative collaborator and consultant for brands including Selfridges, Lane Crawford, Topshop, Brora, Pollini, Robert Clergerie, The V&A, Lanvin, Diane Von Furstenberg, Christopher Shannon, House of Holland.
Michelle Kyle is District Visual Manager for Anthropologie, Europe. Michelle is a creative with over 15 years’ experience in Visual Merchandising & Display. She is responsible for the curation of window & in store concept design and project manages in house creative teams to deliver the 'unimagined experience' of an Anthropologie store. She and her teams are driven by the challenge to improve the customer journey and shopping experience through VM & display techniques. Particularly motivated by the training and development of people, Michelle achieves this through coaching and mentoring creative teams with complex and large-scale projects in stores, refits, designing fixtures and store openings. She previously worked for Urban Outfitters Head Office Creative team, opening over 30 stores across Europe and Asia.
PARC menswear founders Paul Rawson and Anthony Campbell first crossed paths on the MA Fashion Course at Central St. Martins in 2005. The following years were spent accruing a design and styling clientele of some of the most prominent names in British fashion and the arts including Richard Nicoll x Linder Sterling, Tim Walker, Ballet Rambert, Martine Rose, Belstaff menswear and Bodymap for Michael Clark. The pair have also nurtured and supported hundreds of fashion students at institutions including Middlesex University and the London College of Fashion. They now develop their signature looks as PARC London.
Miro Bijelich is Owner of Creative Agency & Brand CULT.11AD. Miro trained at Central Saint Martin’s with his post graduate Menswear design 2016. With 18 years in the fashion industry from retail to product development to be a trend analyst for a large corporate retailer. In 2011, Miro started a brand based on my love for visuals and graphics. Social Media has been a big part of Miro’s creative process with platforms such as: @telepathicpeople
Central Saint Martin’s MA fashion graduate, Carol Wiseman currently works as an independent and freelance jewellery designer & consultant. She is also a lecturer in Fashion/textiles at Ravensbourne and Fashion Accessories at London College of Fashion. Collaborations and collections for the fashion industry include Phoebe English, Chalayan, Danielle Scutt, Julien Macdonald and others. Carol also works closely with stylists and music industry for editorial and press pieces, with commissions for Lionbabae, Charlie xcx, Lady Gaga & Shey Baba. She has also worked on bespoke designer collections for brands such as Coco de Mer and Lascivious lingerie.
Katie Jones is an inspirational knitwear designer who teams playful aesthetics with serious ethics! Katie's self-named brand was launched by the British Fashion Councils Estethica after finishing her MA at Central Saint Martins and Jones won Selfridges Bright New Things Award in 2016. Her designs has been stocked in luxury stores worldwide and featured on the pages of global fashion and craft publications. Katie now produces her Make-It-Yourself Collection, the designer’s new #sofasnotsweatshops mantra puts the task of constructing the garment in the hands of the customer, joining in with the love of the make and making luxury fashion accessible!
FURTHER READING
Founder of The Creative Society Martin Bright on why The Creative Job Studio was established
The Creative Job Studio is a partnership between The Creative Society and Somerset House.
