Designer name: Henrietta Mackay-Ludgate
Origin: Highlands and islands, Scotland
Career highlight: “Our show last season. It sparked lots of prestigious international sales. As a young label, I am very excited to think that my brand is in prestigious and famous stores such as Beams in Japan, Penelope and Sugar in Italy as well as others in Russia, Hong Kong and more.”
Design background: Henrietta freelanced as a costume designer, working with companies including Channel 4 and the BBC. She then spent several years working with Osman Yousefzada. She studied at Central Saint Martins.
Design signatures: “Structural, strong shapes with minimalist lines in luxurious British fabrics... The designs are sophisticated with an edge. A combination of sharp lines and drapes which follow the contours of the body. This meshes with Schiapararelli’s view of clothing as a type of architecture; she believed that clothing should be closely connected to the frame of the body, just as a building’s form is drawn from its structural skeleton.”
How would you describe the Henrietta Ludgate woman? “Elegant, wonderfully fun and a little bit different.”
What is your brand philosophy? “Supporting British craftsmanship, with fabrics sourced from mills within the British Isles and all pieces produced locally.
On launching my own label, my priority was to illustrate a sense of my Scottish heritage. Whether through the fabrics, cuts or colours, this idea of work inspired by my Highland background runs through all my designs. I work from my studio in the Scottish highlands, which runs in conjunction with the London showroom. I believe in slow fashion and a minimalist silhouette.”
Trademark piece: “Our minimalist, clean, cylindrical silhouette.”
Price range at retail: £180 - £500
Three autumn/winter 2012 inspirations: “Dark fairytales told on cold winter nights, the glittering rock, called mica that sparkles on the loch floor and Shetland ponies.”
What does 2012 hold for your brand? “Late last year I opened my first concept store - Henrietta Ludgate’s Work-Shop in Bayswater. This year, I am intent on making the Work-Shop an exciting creative space for artists and craftspeople. The brand which bears my name may be small at the moment but I have big plans for 2012; I often say that I am building the “couture house of the future”.”
What is your favourite decade in fashion? “My work consistently draws on the avant-garde minimalism of the 1960s, but I am also fond of the bohemian decadence of 1970s, which served as an influence for my AW12 collection.”
Henrietta Ludgate is retailing at 'Estethica at Yooxygen'