Kirsty Elizabeth Studio: A Heart of Gold and a Brand on the Rise
INTERVIEW BY LUCY FORDYCE
Kirsty Elizabeth Studio is the creation of Scottish fashion designer Kirsty MacLennan, a woman for whom ‘art and design has been in her blood since she can remember.’ Her handmade wedding and occasion-wear garments are crafted from the finest silk and lace and tailored to each client with a view towards ‘empowering, feminine and always glamourous’ pieces; exceptional quality and customer service have always been at the heart of the business.
The University of St Andrews got its first glimpses of Kirsty’s talent when her graduate collection was featured in the tenth issue of ST.ART magazine and her Valentina gown was worn on the student runway for the 22nd annual charity fashion show in 2014. Since then, she and her designs have travelled far and wide – one of her dresses was used for a shoot in Dubai and she has recently been spending time in France, a country whose style (and textiles) have long been a source of inspiration for her.
Following the release of Kirsty’s latest collection, Cœur D’Or (Bridal Spring 2021), Haute writer Lucy Fordyce interviewed the designer on topics including her inspiration, her journey towards Kirsty Elizabeth Studio, her design process. You can read Kirsty’s brilliant, in-depth responses below and follow Kirsty Elizabeth Studio on Instagram, Facebook, and at https://kirstyelizabethstudio.com/
Kirsty at work with challenging silk, New Lace ST.ART feature and the Valentina gown at the charity catwalk
[Lucy] Was there a particular moment/life event that made you want to become a fashion designer?
[Kirsty] I was always really artistic as a child, I always was doing some kind of art: I was painting, I was making stuff, I was being crafty and I always knew it was something I was going to do when I was older. My earliest memory of doing fashion was when I was about twelve and I entered this school fashion show that was being run by the seniors. I didn’t know anyone who was involved in the show, I just saw a poster and I was like, “Cool, let’s give it a go.” I only knew the basics on the sewing machine so I spoke to my Mum and we pulled together this outfit. It turned out that I was not only the youngest but I was the only person in the show that had made something from scratch: everything else had come from shops, to promote the shops. Looking back, it was probably the most creative thing I have ever done - it was terrible, but it was creative! I started using Halloween as an excuse to just try something else and, looking back, all my Halloween costumes were definitely more “wearable” than “costume”!
What steps did you take to achieve your goal (training, qualifications, fashion shows etc.)?
At the end of high school, I was really determined to get into art school. I worked really hard to make sure I had the grades to get in and then I attended lots of weekend and evening courses to make sure I had the best portfolio I could, which was quite a struggle coming from the Highlands because there were no courses up there, the art teachers weren’t that great about putting together portfolios for big city art schools…so it meant a lot of travel. After that, I started to apply and, in my head, my aim was: get into art school, do the first foundation year of all the arts, then specialise in fashion from year two. Looking back at it, I was never really certain that my idea would work but I was like, just go with it and see what happens! I was rejected from my first choice, which was a little heart-breaking at the time but then I received two unconditionals to Heriot Watt University in Galashiels. Coming from a small town, I was very reluctant to go to Galashiels because I just didn’t want to go to the same kind of town and not grow as a person but I thought, well, maybe this is a sign and maybe I should go and try it, see what happens and it was absolutely the best decision I’ve ever made.
The High Mill at Heriot-Watt School of Textiles & Design in Galashiels. Honorary graduates include fashion designers Vivienne Westwood, Zandra Rhodes, and Jasper Conran.
What made you want to ultimately have your own line instead of, say, designing for a major brand?
I always wanted to be my own boss growing up, it was always a really strong ambition for me and when you have such a strong creative vision, it’s really hard to work behind someone else and follow their vision because you’re constantly being like, “Imagine if we did it that way, that could really work!” so I was constantly thinking for myself. Before starting up on my own, I learned from some of the best female bosses out there and these people, they definitely empowered me to know that I could do my own thing, that I could run my own brand, that we’re all powerful enough to do it if we set our minds to it. Working with these people really grew me as a person - it made me so much more inspired to run my own brand.
Who are your fashion icons and do any major brands especially inspire you?
Designers that have always influenced me from the early days are people like Elie Saab, Temperley, and obviously McQueen as well. I think with McQueen, you can take different parts from him, so, he was very dramatic and really made a statement whereas I’m a little bit “quieter” but the intricacy, the detailing, the creativeness of his patterns, of his colour, that’s what I always look to. Any designer with intricate detailing, embroidery, metallic fabrics, it pulls me in instantly.
An Elie Saab gown and shawl, a selection of catwalk pieces by Alexander McQueen and a Temperley London wedding dress
Do you take inspiration from outside the fashion world (e.g. music, books, architecture)?
I think I take inspiration from architecture the most and it definitely has something to do with the intricacy, the patterns, the shapes – everything that you find on historic buildings. Sometimes I’ll be walking along the street and I’ll look up and that’s when you see all these incredible patterns on the coving and the stonework; you just don’t see that on modern buildings anymore. People will say, “How can you be inspired by a city?” and it’s like, look up, look up at everything above street level because that’s when you actually see the beauty and that’s why Paris has always been a massive inspiration…[in Paris] they’ve applied gold to these grey, colourless structures and sometimes they’ll do it super lightly and delicately and they’ll have a specific way of putting that gold on and sometimes they’ll just slap on gold on this whole piece and it just stands out; the contrast between the gold and the grey is something that is constantly in the back of my head. I always look back at historic things, like the 1920s is a massive inspiration to me, just the structures, the flow, the feel, the intricacy - it’s always intricacy!
The gold and grey gates of the Palais de Justice in Paris and one of Kirsty’s mood boards
What made you lean towards occasion/bridal wear?
Going through university, I discovered pretty quickly that casualwear was not inspiring to me at all and, every brief that I was given, I tried to pull it towards eveningwear and I always tried to make it fancier. My course was very much about industry manufacturing and so techniques like hand sewing, luxurious fabrics, and time-consuming detailing were not welcome and they constantly tried to pull you away from it, which I was fine with because that was the course I picked but to myself I was like, nope, this is not me, it’s not me! I remember showing my graduate collection ideas to my lecturer for the first time and she said to me, “Do you realise how much time this is going to take you?” and I was like, “Yes, I do!” and I went for it and, yes, I sewed every minute of the day, hand-sewed all these beads, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of beads but, in the end, it was the best collection I had ever made and I was so proud of it and I knew in my heart that it was me.
I think that’s where I thrive creatively the most: these time-consuming techniques, really putting effort and love and care into each garment I make. You can have complete control over a garment when you’re using these techniques because you piece the design together bit by bit by bit…and it just comes together. I love to make memorable pieces that are unique and this all adds to the uniqueness, that every piece can be completely different just by the amount of lace and hand-sewing you put into it. Naturally, all of these things that I loved just fed me right into eveningwear and bridal. I’ve tried to do other areas where the costs are less, cheaper to make, quicker to make, and it’s just not where I thrive: I love putting everything into a dress.
You place emphasis on using quality British and French fabrics. What was your motivation for choosing this way of producing your designs? Why do you lean towards silk and lace?
I used to work with a British textile brand and I learned so much about the British creative industry and the manufacturing industry and also building a quality product. The deterioration of clothing and textile manufacturing in the UK absolutely breaks my heart…If you put “British” on a product, you know it’s quality and I think that’s something that we really don’t want to lose…We really need to do our best to advertise this [manufacturing] and keep it in the know, keep everyone aware of it and keep them in business, keep that industry thriving. It was only natural for me that, if I’m producing a product in Britain, it needs to be made from quality fabrics and I need to support the country that supported me – if I’m producing and selling here then I want to help the businesses here as well. It was just in my heart that, yeah, it needs to be this way.
If I was going for a cheaper product, the struggle is that it’s just not possible to make it here. We’ve seen it recently in the news with a high street fashion brand that was accused of paying their staff minimal wage because that’s the only way they can produce such a cheap product here so it’s just not going to work at the end of the day.
My choice to use French lace in the collection was very personal. I went on a trip to Paris when I was a student and I saw this mill and instantly they just sucked me in. Everything about them, I was so inspired – all their fabrics were like, “I want to use this, I want to use this!” and I loved the story of the mill, how they got started but there was me, a young student with no budget and they were way out my price range and I was like, “I can’t use them, it’s not possible.” I took a brochure away and that brochure came with me to every place I lived in the next so many years and I never forgot about them and I always said to myself, “One day I will use those fabrics, when the time is right.” And, in the past year, I was thinking about them even more – I actually got contacts about how to get hold of the fabric, I designed the collection with them in mind and I decided that I was going to use them so, yeah, it happened! It was a horrible journey to get there through lockdown, trying to get hold of a fabric from a mill that was closed and being on a time crunch but it all worked out in the end and it’s perfect, I wouldn’t have gone with any other lace. Everything I use, it always comes from a place in my heart, if that’s not too cheesy! It’s thought out, it has to reflect all the time and effort I’ve put into that design.
Close-ups of the lace and silk used by Kirsty Elizabeth Studio
What is the typical design/production cycle for one of your items? What's your average end-of-production photo shoot like?
Normally, the inspiration has been sitting in my head for a while so, even if I’m working on one project, there’s new stuff coming in all the time and it’s quite hard to juggle…I’ll spend a few weeks pulling together images and fabrics and really creating a visual for me to work from and then I’ll start sketching, I’ll start pulling out ideas and just constantly sketching. It’s a very fast process, you don’t spend an hour on a sketch, you spend a minute and then you get onto the next one because, as any creative will know, your brain is continuously rolling and you just need to get everything out as quickly as possible. As I start to do that, I’ll start pattern cutting and draping so that I can actually see 3D visuals of my ideas and, from there, it’s a case of working back and forth - adjusting the patterns, adjusting the sketch – until I come out with something that I’m pretty happy to go forward with. Then I’ll start making up toiles and, as I’m making those up, I’ll start to see what works, what doesn’t work, what I need to change and eventually, once I’ve made the final decisions, I just crack on with the final fabrics and get them made up as samples.
Obviously, when it comes to the bespoke process, there’s a lot more involved there because you’re designing for a specific client. There’s measurements to take into account, there’s personal style, there’s liaison between you and the client to make sure that what you’re producing suits them as well as it suits you – that’s a longer process and more detailed.
The photo shoot will be in my head the whole way through the design process because you’re constantly visualising what you’re drawing – where’s this going to be, where’s this going to look best, where does it naturally sit? The style of the shoot will heavily reflect the inspiration and the “feel” of the collection then it’s a case of just pulling all the elements together which you need to produce the shoot. You need to find a photographer that fits the style, that you know is going to execute your vision the way you want…that’s a very difficult thing to trust, especially with a new photographer because you look at their portfolio and you think it’ll match but, when it comes to the day, it’s pretty nerve-wracking. You can’t do anything then, you’re just the bystander: I was just the assistant on set at that point! The modelling, the styling, the makeup obviously has to fit the brand as well; at the end of the day, these pictures sell what you’re trying to market. You can put loads of work into a dress but if it’s photographed wrong, on the wrong person, in the wrong light, in the wrong way, it’s going to look like a completely different garment. In the end it comes down to trust between all the creatives involved, and I’m happy to say I have yet to be disappointed by a shoot I have done!
For the latest collection film that [photographer Mathieu Ruffray] put together, I shared with him some styles of film that I liked and then I left him to it. I’ve learnt through the years to avoid getting too involved with editing as I get too indecisive, and that it is best to leave the professional to it. He took what I designed and made it look a hundred times better; he really knew how to show off what I’d designed and I’m ecstatic [with the results]!
The Lovetta dress from sketch to creation and the Valentina gown
Alongside purchasing their designs, are there any other ways consumers can help small fashion businesses in these complicated times?
It’s about creating a buzz, it’s about talking. If there’s a brand you like, tell your friends about it, share it to all your followers, and share it to all your friends on Facebook and just create a conversation about that person or company. With the way that internet and social network algorithms work, so much can go missed and I was really conscious of that when launching this collection because I haven’t posted a lot in the past. I’ve taken many gaps – I don’t know if this is a good thing – I’ve taken breaks from designing and when you stop posting, that’s when you just fall straight down the algorithm and they don’t show you anymore. The help of people resharing, talking about it [is important]. If there’s a pottery brand that you just bought from and you absolutely love the mugs, don’t stay quiet about it: share that information, tell your friends, maybe post a picture, even get in touch with the maker of that pottery and ask them if there’s anything you can do to help, share a review on something; all these little things, they really, really help.
Haute’s interview ends here with huge thanks to…
