It’s funny, somehow I’ve never been asked that question before. No one had ever asked me why I started HANGER. i always wanted to have my own brand and since I was a kid I always wanted to be a designer – I love making clothes. I went on to get my degree and after that I really wanted a job, but I couldn’t find one because obviously you need years of internship experience.
I couldn’t afford to do that, which meant I couldn’t get involved in any design work, so I started my own label. Not only because I wanted to have one, but in a way I knew I didn’t have the option to do anything else. It was the only way for me to really start making clothes in the real world.
I read that you are actively working as a fashion designer. is HANGER your main outlet to showcase and promote fashion? Or do you have a select group of designers?
I make stuff all the time, but all of that is private. HANGER is not in a public stage yet. It could happen again, soon, but as of now, it’s still under wraps. I’ve been making clothes here and there, but I think because I’ve been making for the public eye most of my life, the last few years I’ve focused on making a lot of new material (fashion, sculpture, art, paintings) privately.
I haven’t shown a lot of my creative output to anyone but friends. I am entering a space where I am learning the value of keeping something hidden, protected and confidential until it sees the light of day. I’m really aware of what I’m sharing right now because I’m really aware that people are watching, not just me, but my creative work.
Did you always know that this was a field you wanted to get into?
Yes, I always wanted to be a designer. Basically either: I want to make clothes, or I want to ride horses. Those are my two obsessions. I really like horses. My mom says “sewing machines are cheaper”. I’ve always had a passion for creating, and when I was younger all we did was draw, and I would draw horses. I knew I wanted to do something artistic or creative, but I didn’t know how it all worked. Even if I had an idea for an “industry”, I didn’t know how it would develop. My mom wanted me to be an accountant because I also liked math – she wanted me to get a steady job.
In addition to design, you are also a visual artist and lecturer. What does it mean to you to be a visual artist?
So I work mainly in ceramics. I started again around 2021, and that was the last time I worked in ceramics was in school. Sometimes, when you become a designer, in the UK, fashion is cut off from any other artistic practice. Once you become a designer, you can’t be an artist anymore. They’re effectively divorced. For example, for Arts Council funding, you can get funding for almost anything, unless you make clothing.
There is also fashion that is not art, because in many legislative and cultural ways, fashion is separate from art. But they are all commodity-based. When I started my fashion route, part of my psyche told me that I was no longer an artist, but a designer. I didn’t revisit the above until a few years ago when an artist friend of mine invited me to a ceramics studio, and it was fantastic – I immediately made something and remembered how much I love ceramics.
How did you get started in the fashion business and lecture while working as a visual artist?
With fashion, I started slowly. As soon as I graduated from college, I went straight into working as a machinist for a brand that I had interned at for five weeks before. I’m really good at sewing, I’m good with my hands and I’m super handy. I was really good at making things, so I continued to do that while working part-time at Spring Studios, and then in between doing those things, I slowly started building my own brand.
You also founded an ethical organization called CogDis with partners Faith Robinson and Florence Huntington-Whiteley. Can you tell me a little bit about this project? How did it come together?
It actually came together because Flo and I were on our way to work and were talking about how we should be the operators of an organization. Every day we would talk about how bullshit certain campaigns were and would talk about ways they could do things better. We finally realized; “Why don’t we just tell them that?” At this point, Flo and I are partners and are working on the next steps. flo has experience working on large corporate brands and I have experience working on smaller, cooler brands. We talked about how to roll the dice and who would be the best fit to work with us. She later suggested to her friend Faith, who already had the idea on a platform, and told us she had been working on making it happen but didn’t have anyone to do it with.
