Emerging Fervour

Since finishing my first collection and pulling together a shoot for my website I was hastily preparing a long trip to Cape Town with my little boy Finn, and in the manic rush I never got round to concluding my diary. So I apologise to any readers about the abrupt end to my blog – Secret Diary of a Handbag Designer.

The shoot for my website went fantastically and resulted in strong images to promote the collection. With thanks to a fantastic team including photographer James Champion, the perfect clothes borrowed from up and coming London designer Natascha Stolle – collections and hair and make up by Allison.

My website can be viewed here: www.deborahclements.com.

The response to the collection was very positive and a lot of interest has been generated. However being away for such a long period has hindered progress, but I’m now ready to pick things up again and get back to the drawing board to begin my next line.

I was looking at these amazing photographs of fashion photographer Peter Lindbergh, an old ‘fave’ of mine. I remember pouring over these images in old nineties Vogues when I was about 10 or 12 years old. The Chanel shoot with the bevy of supermodels – almost all of them, has great nostalgia for me and really moved me when I saw it recently. The impact actually inspired my little black bag and for me, is a small but true reflection of that era.

So off I trotted to my little production team and began creating my LBB whilst we worked on the pattern for the first design.

Trying to keep the collection in the same vein, tying in details that keep them a family. An outside tutor from Saint Martins once mentioned to me that a collection is like a family. That each piece can be quite individual… Like brothers and sisters which don’t actually look alike but have a similarity to them. And this is what I do believe a collection is. I looked at more images from Peter Lindbergh and found colours and patterns for leathers and linings inspired from a early nineties Versace ad campaigne. I liked the warm moody tones of charcoal, grey and deep blues. Perfect for a Autumn/ Winter collection.

Starting my first ever collection for my handbag label CLEMENTS has been a little bit trickier than I initially thought. First of all, where do you begin and when do you call it quits! Well, you can never call it quits is what I have learned but you can finalise and move on with a fresher start once a new season starts. And I’m already so excited to progress with that!

But as all designers know, the labour of production wavers ahead and I must get that running before any new collection starts. Before that I had sampling which is transferring drawn designs into an actual product. This is where things get tricky.

It all starts with a 101 crazy ideas…..

It feels like years ago when I jotted down initial ideas and roughs for developing this collection. My first roughs are laughable but it’s that process that gets you to your finals and creates a story to the collection.