Interview: Fashion Designer

Do you know that Britain is a country with the largest gentleman? Have you heard that Haute Couture? Do you also know that really famous of Haute Couture in London?Are you interested in how to make a dress or coat? Are you interested in the story about designer? Do you want to know how long time do they need to do a coat? As a student who is studying about fashion, we all know, Haute Couture is especially popular in the fashion industry. Many Chinese or other countries of the rich man will flew over ten hours to Britain to design a suit for themselves. Have you heard about Orhan? A fashion designer for Vivieen Westwood before. And also he has made a coat for princess Diana. But now, he has two stores in UK with his wife. Fortunately, He accepted my interview and shared his story for us. This interview will let you know more knowledge and detail about the Haute Couture, also can let you have a deeper understanding about fashion industry.

Q: Orhan London has been a retailer for 29 years which has great achievement. So you are doing basically on control.

A: Yes, basically. Everything is done on individual basis. So we don’t have 10/12 garments that you could not say can I have a navy in size 10 or size 12 ... and I make everything to you. Q:Your design sounds like far away from us unlike a daily wear. It has long distance with us. A: Yeah, when you say HC, everyone thinks it is a lady’s wear. It is not cheap because of the extensive labour But we do men suits as well for guys working in the office in the city.

Q: How long have you been involved in this industry?

A: I started from I was 15. So my father was a tailor from Turkey before. And when I finished school, I wanted to be a footballer as most boys. He said,’don’t be silly. I ‘m gonna teach your job that you can do for the rest of your life.’ So when I left school, I started working with him in the factory in turkey. I really enjoy it, the best aspect of what we do is not just create garment for people which is fantastic because everyone feels really happy when they wearing them. But it is the people that we need, everyone that seems to come here has their own unique stories and they talk about it. And because they come for fittings, you really need to understand them and how they lives are. Only when we understand the people, can we understand how we need to project what they are wearing, and colors, fabrics and other things like that. So it is a important part of the work, but the most pleasure part of the work as well.

Q:What’s your previous working experience before you launched this studio? A:Well, when I left school, my father was working at factory making garments after many years working together ]the man who owned the factory wanted to retire, so he offered it to my father, so my father bought it. We started to add own label. So after many years, My other 2 brothers didn’t have the passion for tailoring life like me. I am the only one left in the industry. And this place is too big to me to manage. I started working in a company on the German St. Then, I met my wife and start my own shop.

Q: It is really like a personal successful studio. A: It is hard in the beginning, but it gets easier. Since my friends came into the shop and you don’t have to spend to much on advertising. It is a really good way to introduce the business to other people.

Q: So during your career, do you have some special piece of works that really impressed you in your life?

A: When my father and I had a factory, we used to do designer wear for British designers. And although is was not our labels, we were working for other labels. We made a few items for princess Diana and we felt so excited.

Q: How much longer to finish one suit basically? A: Between 40-60 hours. It is quite slow because there was a lot of hand work. You have to get close to know more about the full structure. So you do the same time for 2 or 3 times and you feel absolutely happy with your creation. Then, you do stitches and do fittings to make sure that is suitable for your body.

Q: How about the price range? A: Depends on what fabric you choose, men suits are usually 750 pounds. If there is some expensive fabric like lace for wedding dress, the price is high. However, we have minimum price and some discounts for students.

Q: Do you have some suggestion about what is the most important quality to be a part of fashion industry? A: You have to enjoy it. Because there are long working hours with relatively low pay. However, you have to enjoy it. You meet so many people and make so many garments to make a lot of people happy cause you work for the people.

Q: How do you think about the soft skills such as attitude and your other personalities are not so important. And the hard skills are more significant. A: I think in this industry, certificate doesn’t matter to much, because it is your technical skills what you can physically do or physically make is more important. So your personality and creation are more important.

Q: British Haute Couture is well-known for its high quality in China even much more popular than some luxury brands. Why is that? A: I think because of the universities here. They are really good. We produce fantastic designers who are very skillful. That is what really good about UK. So that is why we find the top designers are British.