Southport fashion designer takes to the catwalk: part II

SHE has gone from college student to catwalk designer in no time.
At only 25, Andrea McWha has met some of the biggest names in the business, designed for a major fashion label and reached the final of Fashion Fringe - a talent search contest which led her to London Fashion Week.
Now, the Churchtown designer shares her tips of the trade with us, chats about her inspiration and sets the record straight about the fashion industry.

The fashion world is depicted in films like The Devil Wears Prada and Ugly Betty as cruel and cut-throat. Is that a true picture?
Not in the industry I work in, although creative people always tend to be a bit dramatic. There is such a fun side to those drama queens.
Most women in this industry aren’t Miranda Priestlys, but they do work very hard and work long hours so it is quite stressful. There are so many people who want to work for you, you don’t have to take any messing.

What has been the highlight of your career so far?
There have been lots of different things that have been good in different ways. I’d done a placement at Coast during my degree at UCLan and was later headhunted by the design director. I got to design the Tuxedos and Fairies collection, and it was like having my own collection. That was exciting because it was my first job, I felt so lucky – I was just handed a dream job on a plate.
Fashion Fringe – designing my own collection, showcasing my design skills at London Fashion Week and building relationships with people so big in the industry – was another highlight. I entered the competition to do something more true to my own design style – meeting Tom Ford and Christopher Bailey was fantastic. Just to be able to show them my stuff was a dream come true!

Where do you find your inspiration from?
Lots of things, anything from films to art exhibitions, but it was the environment for my collection for London Fashion Week.
I get a feeling for something like leather or wearing black or studs. I was even watching the 100 Greatest Movies recently on TV and it came up with Edward Scissorhands and I thought that is quite inspiring!
I decided I wanted to do a practical collection for Fashion Fringe– the fashion industry has made leaps and bounds in fabric development and I was really interested in playing around with new materials which are very versatile.

Any advice to budding designers?
Work out what type of designer you are while you’re still at college or university, whether that’s mens, womens or childrens. If you’re not sure, try everything while you’re studying and then develop what you love doing while you’ve got time to grow and be brilliant in that area.

If you could invest in just one fashion item to survive into 2008 what would it be?
I don’t follow trends. This season is all about bright, strong colours and not about patterns, but it’s no good saying to people red is in fashion when not everybody suits red. My advice is to go with what looks good on you, it doesn’t matter if it’s not the trend.

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