Hanger

Since I was around five or six, I was always trying to make clothes and dreamt of being a designer. I think the development of style is a constant thing and is always changing. I think when I really came into my signature style with Hanger was around 2015, when I really honed by design process and learnt how to formulate ideas that looked good but also worked and looked distinctly mine.

Loads! Access to money is the main obstacle that everyone faces, so being fortunate enough to be awarded this prize was really and truly fabulous. It did, under no uncertain terms, enable me to get to the next stage of business, be able to work with amazing people and show my brand to a much greater audience. To be honest, the journey also had a ton of struggles; upscaling can be incredibly hard when you’re doing everything for the first time. But nothing good comes easy, apparently?

I’m not sure if looking at these characters has really influenced me as a person. The reason I look to empowered female figures in my work is that I already am one and I am surrounded by them – whether they know it or not.

I would hope that anyone wearing my clothes feels however they want to feel, be that sexy and dominant or quiet and low-key. I think there is definitely an inherent boldness within my pieces that would lend to a feeling of empowerment but I don’t want the main message of my work to be overt ‘sexuality’. For me, my work is about so much more than sex; it’s about comfort as well as strength. In my new Season 8 collection, I’ve incorporated suits that the wearer can be comfortable in and adjust, which I guess we can call comfort power-dressing. For me, showing people that it’s not only old white men who can wear suits is way more important than showing people that women are sexy because we’ve had this message since the dawn of time.

It’s difficult! People’s preconceptions of the fabric are pretty die-hard but we’re getting there. Also, latex doesn’t have to be for everyone but definitely should be for more than it is now. If you think of it as an alternative to leather or PVC, it’s pretty clear that an alternative that doesn’t involve the slaughter of an animal or even more plastic in the world makes sense. The way I use latex is also an effort to show people that it is, as a fabric, most definitely ‘wearable’ and not strictly dungeon-wear only.

I worked with artist Chris Fowler on this shoot, mainly just because we wanted to create something fun and in line with the inspiration of the collection. The references in it are a clear nod to the Sukeban inspiration for the collection, and we really just wanted to do a fun shoot with friends of ours. I hope that came through!

The people around me really drive me and push me creatively, and fortunately, my close circle is full of creatives with whom I work regularly. What I do is most definitely influenced by them and so all of the work I put out with Hanger is one hundred per cent a collaborative effort. There are very few things that are done or thought up solely on my own. With every shoot, the team is made up of friends or friends of friends. For me, it’s really important to be able to fully trust who I’m working with, especially as money’s too tight to be able to afford big mistakes; this means our teams are almost always female – I’m sure you understand why.

It’s an extremely long process and so I do think the industry is changing but not nearly as quickly as it needs to. Unfortunately, profit margins are way more important to brands than environmental damage and slavery, so I think fashion still has an incredibly long way to go. As a brand, I think our practices of manufacturing in London and incorporating renewable fabrics does set us apart from a lot of other labels but there’s still a lot more I hope we can do in the future.
One of the main reasons the fashion industry is so unsustainable is that it is incredibly difficult to fully trace a supply and manufacture chain to achieve full transparency unless you dedicate a lot of money to the cause. I’m hoping that, as time goes on, legislation will change, which will make it a lot easier for everyone, including myself, to be able to know how and where their products have come from.

We’ve just launched our new Season 8, The Temple of Sleepy-Chan collection. We also partnered with our friends at Studio Augmenta on a huge film to accompany it, so launching this is the focus of my efforts at the moment, and getting the clothes out there. And at some point, some rest!