After finishing my degree in fashion design, (specialising in accessory design and manufacture) I went on to win the Clarks footwear award at GFW 2018 for my work, part of the prize was a 6 week work placement working at Clarks. (Summarised in the experience section of my profile)
Since then I have been working freelance as an accessory designer for various designers and brands. Working closely with them to develop their desired accessories and then going on to manufacturing said accessories in my home studio using my industrial machinery, whether its a final accessory ready to be sent out to a customer, or a final sample to be sent off to a factory. It has enabled me to continue learning and exploring new and interesting ways to approach accessory design and been highly beneficial for the clients and myself.
Projects
- Freelance accessory design and manufacture - Clio PeppiattI have been working with the luxury womenswear label, Clio Peppiatt over the last few months to create some accessories. I took her initial sample and redesigned and engineered it from the ground up, using the sample as a marker. The next project we're working on is an up-cycling project using old leather motorcycling jackets. (See picture below)
- Clarks shoe design project - Luxury modular sneakerI was tasked with creating a shoe of my own design and specification from the ground up. I had already designed the shoe for the footwear award at GFW. So in the space of 6 weeks I redesigned the shoe to their standards and went through every process that Clarks goes through in order to design a shoe. From creating highly detailed and precise tech packs on illustrator, to doing renderings of the shoe design in photoshop to bring it to life. I then had to work closely with two 3D engineers (one f
Work history
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Freelance accessory designSelf Employed
London, United KingdomFreelance
Working freelance as an accessory designer for various designers and brands. Working closely with them to develop their desired accessories and then going on to manufacturing said accessories in my home studio using my industrial machinery, whether its a final accessory ready to be sent out to a customer, or a final sample to be sent off to a factory.
It has enabled me to continue learning and exploring new and interesting ways to approach accessory design and been highly beneficial for the clients and myself.
Footwear designerClarks
- United KingdomFull Time
Working with the head men’s designer, Jonathan Hampton, helping him with spec sheets and the like, I was also given my own project to work on and develop in my 6 weeks there. I was tasked with creating a shoe of my own design and specification from the ground up. I had already designed the shoe for the footwear award at GFW. So in the space of 6 weeks I redesigned the shoe to their standards and went through every process that Clarks goes through in order to design a shoe. From creating highly detailed and precise tech packs on illustrator, to doing renderings of the shoe design in photoshop to bring it to life. I then had to work closely with two 3D engineers (one for the sole unit and one for the upper) to bring my design to life in a digital 3D form. Which was a fascinating process, and once it was to my satisfaction and spec we had the models printed using the 3D printers we had in house.
I also designed and produced an accessory to accompany my shoe design, as my passion for design lays with accessories. I designed a cross body bag to be constructed out of recycled leather off cuts from the factory we had on site at Clarks hq. I followed the same design process as I did with the shoe, from initial design drawings to spec packs and renderings. After which I designed the patterns for the bag to 100% scale using illustrator. I then printed them off to scale using an A3 printer, and then took the pattern and leather home to be manufactured by myself in my home studio.
After the shoe was finished and the bag manufactured I then put together a highly creative and visually impacting presentation of my project to present to various high level persons within the design team at Clarks. For instance Jason Beckley, the brand director. The response I received from the presentation was very productive and everyone was surprised and extremely pleased with the amount of work and dedication I’d exhibited through my time there.
Skills
- Leather Work
- Abobe Illustrator
- Adobe Photoshop
- Garment Construction
- Accessories Design
- Technical Drawing
- Garment Design
- Creative Direction
- Logistics
- Time Management
Education
2:1 BA (Hons) Fashion DesignArts University Bournemouth
- Bournemouth, United Kingdom
3 year course in fashion design and manufacturing, in which I specialised in Accessory design.