Alexa Chung's Advice for New Designers | Vogue Visionaries | British Vogue & YouTube

i'm edward enfield and welcome to volk visionaries we established this series to offer inspiration and practical advice to those looking to break into the creative industries something we know has been incredibly difficult in the context of the last year we've developed visionaries in partnership with youtube a platform that many of you go to to learn new skills and build creative careers we hope this class is a step towards a bright and brilliant future hello i'm alexa chung this is my vogue visionaries online class please remember that there is a time bar below and you can skip ahead to each different chapter if you so wish today we're going to be covering a lot of different subjects as are relevant to the fashion industry and how to get started here so it will be how i set up my company any challenges i've had vital advice for if you're a new designer and things i'm proud of [Music] anyway just watch [Music] are you sitting comfortably then i shall begin um when i was a child i really liked clothes i would say more than most children do i was very concerned about style and outfits when i used to go to the hairdressers with my mum i would read vogue and be like whoa wow but my dad was quite keen on me being a fashion illustrator or at least would buy me books around that theme books about old costumes or that amazing book fruits about tokyo street style i've just always loved clothes i don't find them boring they could never bore me and i'm like a real librarian about them and do a big stock take of any new person that walks in i like i'm interested to look at that outfit and how they put it together and what they're wearing and i'm a train spotter for clothes even though then in my vibe i've always been like oh no just put it on really i just am very passionate about cataloguing things in my mind that wasn't the question the question was have i always sketched it yes i have when i started modelling my sister was studying textiles and she had this sewing machine and i used to make my own skirts i actually come from a family of quite creative people my dad's a graphic designer my brother works in film and my other brother in music so it wasn't a stretch to imagine that i might do something in this realm i think my experience and journey to starting my own company has been quite unique because it came about in increments and through happenstance and a lot of quite lucky opportunities so while i was doing television in the uk and the us i was offered um a few collaboration deals and it was kind of my first experience of creative direction and design and i really really enjoyed learning about denim more about pattern cutting about the process but it really was like a very my first design tomy toy version of this experience because obviously they had an incredible production structure already in place and i literally just got to walk in and benefit from all of this machinery that was already there without really actually understanding the hard graft that kind of goes into it so i collaborated with madewell following that i did other collaborations with people like a.g jeans and going through the archive at marks and spencer's creating a collection for them i started realizing that actually it just felt very natural to me to be doing these things and i enjoyed every part of it it wasn't like an overnight i want to be a designer it was more like something that grew steadily but there is a difference between you know enjoying it and tinkering with it and actually fully committing to this idea of setting up my own company i don't think i would have been able to do this if i hadn't been encouraged by so many people and that came from even just doing interviews with people in as part of the scope of my other job in presenting or journalism and people asking when i would be making my own brand so really i was kind of heavily influenced by their expectations more so even than my own we don't necessarily nurture people from that aren't already from a connected background to step into this type of industry and that's it that is a shame and something that we should be working on um so for someone who doesn't have any connections which is most people really um i think a good way into finding your people and finding the right network is actually to just go out and have fun and discover friends that you can express your honest self around and i think if you're already a creative person tangentially that will lead you to the epicentre of what's going on maybe you'll find a graphic designer that might do great t-shirts for you in the future or maybe you'll bump into someone who's in turning it vogue and they'll be able to hand your work over to their fashion desk or something or you know obviously this is all to happen once we're out of a pandemic goes without saying um or another great thing might be to you're watching this right now maybe you could launch your own channel or showcase your work via youtube i know that people really love to see behind the scenes and um having access to vulnerability as well so it might be that you're a work in progress and you want to share that on a vlog or something i wouldn't forget the old school way of doing things which might be to write someone actually a letter a handwritten letter maybe you could enclose photographs of what you're doing um or asking for help or advice or asking for an internship or work experience people still really appreciate um enthusiasm when i was growing up you only really heard of one route and one narrative which was you go to saint martins or whichever other you know revered school and then you follow that path maybe it's work experience at a fashion house in paris or new york and then blah blah blah blah blah whereas now i think we're seeing more experimental versions of that happen and it might be that someone's making a small run of things and launching via instagram or perhaps they've skipped into that job from a different one in the same way that i have so maybe you're an art director for something else or a graphic designer or maybe you're a ceramicist who then crosses over so i think there's lots of different routes in and it's not easy two fundamental steps that a design should take to set themselves up for success i think would be get your finances straight which actually has nothing to do obviously with the fun part of design but without a solid understanding of the business side you're not going to be able to make something that has longevity and i certainly suffered from not being clear on that side of things at the beginning and then number two if you are working within a team which would be advisable because maybe it's difficult to do all of the stuff on your own then do make sure that you all share the same vision or at least you're working on very clear lines of communication [Music] i will always continue to be inspired by music and musicians and as soon as that kind of occurred to me everything became so much easier because i was almost kind of denying that natural interest so throughout my life even my first job which was in television after my real first job which was modeling um i only did tv because i loved music and my first job was hosting pop world which is a music show if it had been a painting show or naked attraction i might not have said yes but it was interviewing bands so definitely music and the music scene is always woven into the fabric of what we design a lot of my favorite uh fashion icons from times gone by are men that could be george harrison or i really love brian jones we're actually working on a collection at the moment that's slightly inspired by him um and then on top of that as well as the classic charlotte rampling chadei i also love street style of random people that aren't famous so i've got this amazing book of japanese street style and every single outfit is just incredible they've taken sort of americana and then twisted it cookie miller who was an amazing writer and actress i love her energy and her point of view she did walking through clear water in a pool painted black which is a very good read punk kids and club kids from the 80s fantastic so in terms of the design process every collection starts with a mood board for example the collection that we worked on here was cult horror movies david lynch heather's it's all about being able to communicate what i'm trying to say or think of to the wider team in addition to a mood board i'll also sit in and sketch things and one of the great things about silverio who's my designer now is that he like me communicates through sketch and that's just been the most amazing gift because we totally understand one another even though he is italian and speaks a little english and i am english and speaks zero italian we're able to communicate through image and it's a smooth sailing process my advice in terms of what to start with if you're a novice designer i obviously can't tell you which particular garment is the easiest for you to design but it's more which one do you think uh epitomizes your vision so for me we actually really focused heavily on a trench coat at the beginning because for me that represented what i wanted to achieve which was a brand that was classic had heritage practicality femininity and masculinity bonded in one zone and was a fresh take on something old so for that for me was the lens through which everything could happen so if you find your version of that item and i would suggest by the way it's not denim because denim's actually chronically hard to get right the moment where i felt i actually was a designer and that's a good point because i did have imposter syndrome for a very long time and i do think it was detrimental to what i was putting out but we might get to that in another chapter but the moment i felt like i truly was a designer was when i took a bow at my first ever fashion show okay here we are chapter three um this is our new collection vertigo for us we figured out that actually people prefer something that's a little wilder like you know you can get your standard classics from maybe other people i think we do very well at those but people like colour from us so this is like if you left a yellow sock in the wash these two together would be very nice maybe you could put a little cowboy boot there i think another signature of laura alexa chung world is mixing that masculine and feminine vibe so if we had a very pretty saccharine dress this little ruffle mini then a key thing for us would be to team it with our tailoring so we've got this really delightful i'm just going to part that there for a second we've got this amazing coat which i'm so happy with um very very long double-breasted but something that's like really sharp and boyish and then underneath you've got this like frilly meringue nonsense now i have a greater understanding of where we sit within the market in the sense that we're a contemporary brand and i think we're a really good price point we want to make it have this alexa trung personality so we might work on the buttons something that's nice specifically about the london fashion community is that there's no barriers between sharing information so designers other people are more than happy to help recommend if you're like where did you produce those t-shirts or i'm struggling to find the right cord they might be able to recommend a fabric mill so don't be afraid to ask around and definitely use as many contacts as you have in terms of shopping for vintage i'm a magpie for vintage anyway and always have been so that's like a consistent thing that's rumbling along in the background i'll dip into lots of stores and i'm always on the hunt for something that will spark imagination i'll end up buying something that isn't perfect as is but it might have a minor detail in it that helps me communicate this idea to the design team i can show you actually we've got like random knitwear in here this was something i bought in a charity shop in holloway and um i loved the bad design obviously i didn't want it as a leotard but this then went on to become a cardigan that we had that then got cancelled but the point is something about this was great so some tips for finding the right vintage clothes for you would be firstly consider the source you've got to find somewhere that's not been overpicked and hopefully not too expensive the next one would be obviously not to rip it off something might be really tempting you're like oh my god that's amazing it's from 1982 it's this and this is so vital that you're putting your own spin on that because otherwise you're just regurgitating someone's work and then the third tip would be maybe it's about dry cleaning it before you make your fit model put it on now open your books please students at chapter 4 for which i will return to my desk something that i found very challenging at the beginning was being confident enough in my own abilities and in my vision to design with myself in mind even though the company ostensibly in this instance is built on my own personal style that's how i was able to achieve this or be in a position that i could encourage people to back this company so stepping away from that didn't actually bode well so now i embrace the idea that if i don't like it and i wouldn't personally wear it it doesn't make the cut and that's actually really simplified things so first and foremost even though it sounds um narcissistic the muse is me i feel like the pressure of running this business comes to me in waves and there's times when i just don't think about it and then there's other moments where i've found myself kind of buckling under the pressure of the notion of heading this company up and realizing that in financial matters or um if there's any crisis outside or um when it comes down to it if anything went wrong it's it's me that's held accountable especially because it's a brand that's led by a name much like victoria beckham or something else there's other brands that are led by designers that can kind of hide behind the thing because they're the designer at a company that pre-exists but this is a unique situation in the i'm both someone in the public eye already and have this company i'm dragging along with me but it's not it's honestly it's not for the faint-hearted i remember once bumping into stella mccartney and she said oh you've set up your own line and i was like yeah you know and i think within the design world when you meet up at those events or something it's like this knowing look where you're all like this is a lot um but she said to me fashion it's not for the faint-hearted and i remember being like ah it's easy and then i got into it and i was like she's right what's really important is the work-life balance and i don't think this just applies to the fashion industry i think the healthier you are outside of your work and your immediate kind of office surroundings the better um able you are to do your job so obviously we're now living in a quite unusual work situation but before this happened um when it came to the work life balance actually learning how to delegate was hugely important i remember this is quite a long story but i'm gonna go for it i was at an airport and i was flying out of city and um there was delays on the flight so i went to this cafe and there was this manager there and the cafe was flooded with people it was like a queue of 100 people trying to get in and this team wasn't working together so the manager was literally pouring the orange juice with sitting people down was changing the cutlery was answering the request for ketchup and nothing was getting done and all of these people were piling up and up and up and i thought oh my god this guy doesn't trust his team to do their jobs he could delegate he could ask the guy to make a cappuccino he could direct the waitresses to clear the tables more efficiently he could go and talk to the kitchen about making sure the orders were coming out differently and it literally was this light bulb moment for me where i realized that i was doing the exact same within my company and i was micromanaging and putting myself in stuff where i didn't need to be i think when it comes to work-life balance making sure you're surrounded by people that you trust to carry your vision forward is very vital i used to live a life where i was constantly in a state of high alert and was taking on too much and was running multiple projects and actually setting up these companies meant that i found a lot of peace because i live in one place i work on one thing there's kind of a singular goal um so my advice would be make sure you've got your other together as well in your personal life before you try and heap on a lot of pressure of a professional thing within this company there's a team that runs the marketing and the social media and the web store and everything so i think acknowledging that that really is a fundamental part of the business is very very important your social platforms be that video or your website is as much of a shop window as having a physical store so you need to take it on as if it is as imperative and important at telegraphing your message as anything else and i imagine that it's like running an editorial magazine and being able to curate your social media and your whole marketing plan to look like if you were an editor of a magazine so things can run alongside it doesn't always just have to be the clothes for example on our website monthly i do a newsletter which helps communicate to the wider audience stuff behind the scenes whether that's design and collection inspiration or culturally relevant moments we have a spotify we have our own youtube channel we have a lot of different channels and avenues which enrich the entire experience and mean that we're able to communicate and get feedback and work alongside this community that we're building so it's not just about um a silk shirt it's like the story of that shirt and how it can make you feel and how it came about my brain is very foggy when it comes to anything to do with logistics and i'm not the most practical person so it was really important to hire people that are really good at that so i wouldn't say that numbers are a natural strength of mine even though i got an a gcse in maths my strength is like new ideas all the time and personality and being able to um take a snapshot of stuff that's culturally relevant and digging into the past and you know connecting the dots between music film literature and fashion um that said it i learned how important it is to be included in those conversations and to be able to hold your own in a board meeting and actually know your i need to know the company inside out and it's a great benefit to me that our ceo marcus is so transparent not just with me but with the entire team so we have weekly meetings so that everyone from an intern to someone that's working on graphics or head of production we all are sharing information and we all understand where we are financially in the company everything we're completely transparent and that's been so so helpful because rather than being like oh no we can't afford that for that budget for that shoot you actually understand why and everyone's pulling in the same direction so the best thing about running the business number one is that i have um autonomy over my self-image and it's spilled out into this larger thing i used to be borrowed by other people and i started to lose my way and not really understand who i was it was really stressful being in it girl guys um but this has been great for my self-confidence and rediscovering my voice um it's a an excuse to self-educate so i didn't go to university and study fashion or literature or whatever i just didn't go to university um and in the design process you learn so much i feel like i've done a degree and an m.a and whatever the other things are masters isn't mma um in so many things beyond just my usual remit which would be looking at staring at pictures of musicians from the 70s as well as that i've learned so many other things so um self education has been the second most rewarding thing of starting this business do you know what i've started doing is i've come up with this character that's like a french actual designer for when i'm giving feedback because i have struggled with and i think a lot of women maybe find this is how to give direct feedback without coming across as quote unquote is my big concern but something recently that's happened is i've started being this like french fantasy designer that's like this is disgusting it's not what i wanted it's moire silk no it's not perfect which is my own problem because instead of having to make things funny i should be able to just say i don't like this the way i see it is and i know i'm millennial so i think our generation's meant to suffer from thinking that we can do everything but sorry guys we can um but i think life's too short not to try and i do understand that it can be crippling sometimes when you have self-doubt and obviously of course i'm very privileged and i understand that i've come from a place where i had the means to set this up via another career but being able to believe in yourself and give things a go you might as well this is what you're going to do when you're old just give it a go if it doesn't work out you can change it's fine it's very important at the beginning of your career that you have someone that you can talk to and a support network and a mentor doesn't have to be someone in your field either i find it really helpful that i have friends who are really encouraging and actually that's often who i design for as well which is helpful for imagining different body types and a more realistic um woman in the world but uh yeah i think making sure that you're not isolating yourself i know that fashion in particular unfortunately suffers from quite a high rate of people really struggling and i think that comes from a creative mind being overactive but also sometimes finding yourself quite isolated in these positions so more than ever i think it's very important to have support around you you know one thing that people never talk about is when things are a complete fit catastrophe and i think that's really dangerous because when you face these adversities and i'm talking loosely as well because i don't even want to talk about it but you know there was a point in time in my company when things weren't great things got a lot better when i realized that not to look at competition or see other people as competition but instead to just stay in my lane and do what i'm doing and that's fine you know i'm really proud of the clothes i make and it might not be a classic way of doing it i have no idea because i have no experience at this job before i started doing it but rather than seeing that as a hindrance or becoming insecure about it i now see it as a strength because we're just we're just our own weird company um what would i like to have known i think i really was prepared to do this i was prepared to set up my own company i really did go in with my eyes open i understood and i craved it but if i could have told myself something when i was younger it would have just been that you know what you're doing just trust your instincts you you've got it three most important lessons i've learned one um be true to yourself two work hard there's no skipping things you can't expect things to turn out well if you're not putting in the time and effort and three is just be nice i really think being nice is really helpful and finding things funny because it's not life or death guys it's just clothes there you have it that was it that was uh my alexa chung vogue visionaries thank you so much vogue for having me and thank you for watching i hope you enjoyed it bye now go and flourish

Channel: British Vogue

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Id: NenZ4QPa9hU

Length: 26min 40sec (1600 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 16 2021