Industry Focus: ALICE HALLIDAY - Designer of the Year at CFW 2011
When you lay eyes on this young woman for the first time, you instantly understand her foray into fashion design. You just ‘get it’. It’s hard to explain, but on sight, everything just falls into place. From her endearing personality to her quirky dress sense and her overall elegance; everything about Alice Halliday (left) accurately reflects her signature design style. But it was her work, of course, that initially drew me in. It was at Cork Fashion Week to be precise, where I sat on the judging panel for Designer of the Year 2011. Although her collection was one of the last to grace the catwalk on the night, it instantly mesmerised me - the beauty, the elegance, the detail, the quality. When the designer herself, Alice Halliday, walked on stage, she too mesmerised me. ‘Ah ha’ I thought. This is the sign of a really great designer - someone who, almost on sight alone, changes how you feel about clothes; instilling in you a desire to adopt their style before you even leave the room. With a design signature that already has 'Florence Welch' as a fan, this wasn’t just any collection or indeed any young designer. This was Alice Halliday. This was a name to watch. (catwalk shots below all by Sachin Vijayan )
Q: When did you first realise that you wanted to work in fashion and design?
A: When I was about 9. My mum had some old 60's barbies with clothes that she and her mum had made, so that inspired me to make clothes for my barbies with her. She also made her wedding dress from a vintage petticoat and antique lace, which has always been hugely inspiring to me.Q: How did you go about pursuing this?
A: I started making and designing from a young age and got a few local stockists and built up a portfolio. I knew I wanted to study fashion and make it my career, so after school, I did an Art foundation diploma at Warwickshire College, Leamington Spa, England, followed by my Degree at the University for the Creative Arts, Epsom, Surrey, England.
Q: How would you describe your style of design?
A: My signature style is feminine, timeless and elegant. I use a mix of minimal shapes with sculptural silhouettes. Innovation, high quality craftsmanship and attention to detail are hugely important.
Q: What kind of things or places inspire you?
A: I can find inspiration almost anywhere, but in particular West Cork, holy places: holy wells, churches and graveyards, the countryside, pebble beaches and things such as religious icons, art, photography, film and costume.Q: Does any one person inspire you?
A: Besides my mum, my auntie, Sukey Sindall, who has a wonderful fabric supply and makes beautiful applique pictures inspired by nature.
Q: What kind of fabrics do you like to work with most?
A: Recycled fabrics, old lace, doilies and table cloths from friends and family, charity shops and vintage fairs.
Q: Your pieces struck me as being beautifully intricate - and yet also beautifully elegant. How do you manage to make something so intricate and with so much obvious attention to detail, appear so elegant, clean and uncomplicated?
A: Thank you! My aim is to successfully combine old with new, and heavily decorative areas with simplicity and clean lines. The shapes and silhouettes I use are quite minimal so by having small areas of intricate beading, it's not too over-powering. I also do alot of hand sewing, this can often give a softer, neater, more elegant finish than machine sewing.Q: Your CFW collection entiteld 'Tea with Tamara', was a strong collection and featured many amazing stand out moments as well as being very cohesive in terms of the overall collection. Can you tell us a bit about the theme and how you managed to achieve this?
A: Making a collection that holds together well and makes a statement is important to me. I was influenced by a beautifully presented exhibition in the V&A last winter called Diaghilev, he was the founder of the Ballets Russes. It was from there that I took ideas from the glittering, chandelier-like costumes of ballerina Tamara Karsavina. The intricate detailing; feather, bead and crystal embellishments were very inspiring as were the silhouettes, which were a combination of geometric and organic shapes. I wanted to keep my colour palette quite simple and tonal, so I took the shades from the old sepia and black and white photos of Tamara; tea, coffee, cream, white, gold with hints of mint, nude, blue-green and navy. The photos looked tea-stained so this sparked the idea of using table cloths, doilies and other things one might find in an opulent tea-room. Table runners, bits of lace curtain, upholstery trimmings, curtain tassle ties and picture hooks all came in handy. I even used a tea cup, saucers and the left over chandelier as accessories. All my sources of inspiration tied together well, so I guess this made the end result cohesive.
Q: What's next for the Alice Halliday collection?
A: I have just done a photoshoot, with a local creative team of my collection for a look book, to appear on my website alicehalliday.com. My collection will appear on a catwalk on Opera Lane and a feature on my work will appear in the next Issue of NONE magazine.
Q: Where can people access your work?
A: Nearly half of the new collection is already reserved for a client. But I will have the remaining pieces, along with new pieces and accessories for sale at Le Chat Noir Vintage Christmas Fair, in The Flying Enterprise Complex, Cork on the 26th and 27th November. Alice Halliday accessories can also be found at Turquoise Flamingo, 4 Washington Street, Cork City and as of Thursday, some one-off clothing and jewellery pieces will be available in Fellini Tea Room, Carey's Lane, Cork City!
www.alicehalliday.com
Fashion with Diet Coke
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