Lulu Kennedy: "You could almost hear an echo of all the punk bands that played there over the years."
For those of you who live in a cave or have failed to notice the headlines, London Fashion Week is in full swing, and today sees what is likely to be one of the most talked about shows of the season, Fashion East. Started by Lulu Kennedy in 2000, Fashion East is an initiative set up to help up and coming designers realise their dream, with three designers per season presenting under the Fashion East banner; today's show sees James Long, Marques Almeida and Maarten Van Der Horst show us their wears. We caught up with the lovely Lulu ahead of the show to talk music, clothes and the Queen…
On the three designer's picked to show this season, "We chose to support the exact same line up this season as last – James Long, Marques Almeida, Maarten van der Horst – which is the first time we’ve ever done this. It’s a sign of how much we believe in them. James is making so much progress as a womenswear designer, he really nailed it last season with wild embellished dresses and biker jackets and this season I know he’ll be doing gorgeous knits for AW-they’re his signature-I live in them right through winter. Marques Almeida feel so fresh and brave, I absolutely love them for doing their thing and ignoring ‘trends’. I know they may have a few surprises for us, and I'm excited to see what they do. I can't resist Maarten and his clothes, I totally fell for his ‘Doom Kaos’ Hawaiian monochrome prints last season, and hope that he hasn’t moved too far from his Tropical Frou fun stuff. Having said that, I do admire his tailoring skills and the way he can effortlessly put unexpected things together. So who knows what we’ll be served up by him…but it’ll be great!"
On her letter from the Queen (Lulu was awarded an MBE in the New Years Honours), " I opened the brown envelope thinking oh no not another bill, then noticed it said On her Majesty’s Service, and the first sentence was like ‘the prime minister…’ and I was like OMG I must be in BIG BIG TROUBLE what the hell have I done?! Then as I carried on reading it dawned on me what it was, and I started laughing my head off."
On her favourite Fashion East memory, "Our first site meeting at The Electric Ballroom in Camden, September 2005. We went during the day. Theres something eerie about visiting an empty club, and that particular one is really atmospheric, you could almost hear an echo of all the punk bands that played there over the years and it gave me goosebumps. It felt like such a privilege to be planning our show in there. The show itself was electrifying. Marios (Schwab) killed it with a collection of super sexy bodycon dresses, and Gareth (Pugh) took us on a total trip, culminating in his light up outfit on Casey Spooner. The whole thing was MENTAL."
On her relationship with music, "I love listening to music first thing in the morning, the louder and madder the better, to wake me up. And in the evening to relax, especially fun things like BBC radio 6 programmes like Jarvis Cocker’s Sunday Service or Lauren Laverne. But weirdly I find it really hard to listen to music while I work, I just end up getting into the tunes and forget that Im supposed to be working."
On her hopes and dreams for the future,"Keep on doing what (Fashion East) does…only MUCH BETTER! I have such a team of absolutely brilliant people around me it all feels possible. I thank my lucky stars for them every day, I really do. (Personally) to buy some jungle land in Mexico and design an eco-shack to build on it."
On repeat on her stereo, "Liar Liar by The Castaways"
Words: Zoe Whitfield
Photo from Lulu's blog lulukennedy.blogspot.com
Fashion East takes place today at 5pm, check out www.fashioneast.co.uk for more information. Remember you can follow all the action from LFW on the Clash fashion team's twitter @clash_fashion.
