I'm a fashion designer at London Fashion Week - and my latest collection is inspired by Lancashire grannies
When you think of Lancashire grannies, you might not think of high fashion - but you’d be wrong.
Designer Patrick McDowell has stormed London Fashion Week with a collection inspired by his gran - thimbles and all.
Patrick, who recieved the Queen Elizabeth Award for British Design from the Princess of Wales in May, entitled his latest 25-piece collection the Lancashire Rose, in honour of his late grandmother, a fabric weaver born in 1923, who taught him how to sew on her 1950s Singer machine.
Speaking to Tatler, he said: “In Lancashire [back then], women made fabric and men worked in mines. They were the two industries. I think all gay designers - well, all designers maybe, but specifically the gay ones - seem to have special relationships with their grandmas.”
He told Fashion Network: “This collection is about the life of my grandmother, a life that spanned ten decades, eight children, a world war, and me. The matriarch, the reason I began to sew, and my blueprint for fairness and straightforwardness, her presence shapes me in ways both ordinary and profound.”
Patrick’s collection is filled with puffball skirts, faded floral prints and deconstructed trenchcoats. Cheekily, it also has thimbles and needles swinging from corseted bustiers and balconettes. He’s also linked up with Aspinal of London to create sewing box-esque minaudiéres, which have been flaunted by Lady Amelia and Lady Eliza Spencer, the identical twin nieces of Princess Diana and daughters of Earl Spencer.
The collection also features the Lancashire Rose - an emblem from the House of Lancaster which dates back to the 14th century, which the 30-year-old described to Tatler as “a nice British story’”, adding: “I know it’s a bit cliché but I do love flowers. And red is a powerful colour. I found out from a friend that Christian Dior used to put one red look in the middle of his collections to wake the audience up at those very slow salon shows, so we have one red dress in the collection [to nod to that].”
There was also a Lancashire accent - quite literally - in his show’s music. After speaking with the Princess of Wales earlier in the year, she suggested McDowell worked with composer Erland Cooper on the show’s musical score. Taking up the recommendation and also working with music director Dave Chase, actual recordings of McDowell’s grandmother were spliced into the classical soundtrack, with a poetic recording from the designer himself included too.