Maude meets Timothy Lee

DAVID LONGSHAW PRESENTS: MAUDE & DORIS

A View From The Inside: the Timothy Lee interview

Dear Disorder disciple, welcome to this, my second outing for Disorder. I’m Maude by the way, you will undoubtedly have heard of me before. For those who are ignorant and unaware of me and my vast influence, I am Editor in Chief of MAUDEZINE, the ‘highly influential fashion bible’. If you have even the vaguest interest in fashion you will have seen my blog: www.whatmaudeworenext.typepad.com

Anyway I was talking to my MAUDEZINE team about who we should interview for Disorder next. “Maudettes (Doris, Mildred, Brenda, Vera, Wada, Ethel) listen carefully, I’ve had an idea! I’m thinking Timothy Lee. You always hear from buyers, stylists, models, photographers and big name designers, head of this or that fashion house but you never get to hear from the ground troops those who work within large luxury goods houses, working under the direction of a creative director!

“Some labels don’t want you to know who designs for them, they have them privacy contracts and whatnot. Some designers pretend they design all of the collection themselves. They talk about their designs coming to them in a dream or struggling over their themes and at best don’t mention their design team, often just pretending they don’t have one.”

“Do you remember, Maude, we went to one designer’s studio and there were rooms full of people scribbling away and draping on tailors dummies? We asked the creative director who was who and he said, ‘Oh I don’t know, they’re just some staff. I think they deal with the factories or something’,” said Doris.

“I know, but even if a creative director is generous, as some are, and tells of his or her talented team, the team never end up being heard from. That’s why I thought it would be educational and fun to hear from Tim,” I said.

“Ooh what a lovely idea, I like it!” said Mildred (the peculiar penguin) as she stood on her head.

“Tim’s a good one to look at because he’s got a CV most creative directors would give their hind teeth for. He’s a Central Saint Martin’s (BA hons), Royal College of Art (MA) fashion design graduate. His MA collection received a flurry of press and was exhibited in the Victoria & Albert Museum and Design Museum, London. Most would have been tempted with such success to launch their own label, but Tim had other ideas. He’d interned during his time at St Martins for Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney and John Galliano and had seen at first hand the benefit of working for a large luxury house with ample funds to fulfill the creative visions of their designers. He saw that they were free from headaches of those with their own labels who often struggle to stay afloat due to the cash flow problems, book keeping, PR and all the things that distract from designing.”

“Ooh, that’s a very good point Maude. You don’t think of all the crap you have to deal with if you have your own label, you just think of the glory and the fame, not the ball breaking problems of running a business,” said Doris on her second cocktail of the day and sixth Hummingbird Bakery cupcake. “I like the ones with the pink icing and the silver shiny edible beads best, they are awfully good!”

“Yes, very good dear,” I said. “Back to Timothy. He was snapped up straight from the RCA to design for Alberta Ferretti in Milan no less, then went back to that London to freelance for Stella McCartney, working on her Adidas range and from there to his current position as womenswear designer for another London based international design house, all in the space of a few short years.”

MAUDEZINE: How do you feel about being interviewed by a fictional fabric mouse?

Thankfully Maude is a lot cuter than the damn mice that used to live with me in Camden so I’m alright with it.

MZ: How did you get interested in fashion and how did you go about starting your career?

Unlike most designers, I wasn’t born with a needle and thread in my hand , it was more towards the end of school that I realised. I started to buy I-D and Vogue, that’s what first got me into fashion. I didn’t even own a sewing machine until my Art Foundation course.

MZ: If you could dress/style Maude in anything what would it be?

I would emboss and heat press Maude’s body into geometric patterns like my MA collection.

MZ: How have you found adapting from being a student and designing for yourself, to designing for a fashion house with an established style?

Strangely it’s just as fulfilling as designing and working on my own stuff. It’s the challenge of getting in to another designer’s mindset. It brings fashion into reality, that it’s not just about me. Most people work for companies. Some labels are easier to adapt to than others. Every time you move to another label it takes a settling in period to adapt and find the balance of your own personality with that of the brand established aesthetic. It’s nice to have a salary and not mounting debts like most young designers with their own labels. You can concentrate on designing, not all the paper work.

MZ: Is it as fulfilling as you expected now you have a ‘proper job’?

Yes it’s such a relief that studying for 7years was worthwhile and that it was feasible to get a good job in fashion. It is possible to have a successful and fulfilling career in fashion without having your own label.

MZ: What advice would you give aspiring designers?

Only give it a go if you’re willing to put in the hours. It will pay off!

MAUDEZINE has arrived. www.davidlongshaw.co.uk and click on MAUDEZINE.

See Maude’s highly influential blog:  www.whatmaudeworenext.typepad.com