Interview with Saffron Knight

After two seasons showing at the London Fashion Week, Saffron Knight is finally gaining the first steps towards the big-time success she deserves. While her printed t-shirts are sold on the website artistspringboard.com, her collections are reaching international audiences through Vogue Italy and fashion bloggers. With prints that always tell a story, she tells NOIR all about her creations, which we hope to see very soon...in our wardrobes!

Was your passion for fashion a childhood dream?

It has always been deeply rooted in me. From a young age my parents worked in theatre and I would play for hours in their costume department. Entangled with the beautifully ornate costumes I role played with everything: ‘Panto’ creations, heavily embellished frilly frocks, silky, pimped out 80’s shirts, riotous costumes from the Jamaican Dancehall scene. Not to mention an unbelievable array of tacky garments, so hideous and unwearable that you almost warm to them as they are probably doomed to a loveless life on the costume dept shelf!

When did you start designing?

I started designing seriously when I got to college and realised my dream.

You won several awards.Tell us how they helped you stepping into the fashion sphere.

They helped me make contacts and most importantly to be clearer about the directions I did and definitely did not want my brand to take.

How does the city inspire your collections? What parts of London do you prefer for picking ideas and people watching?

Lately I have been people watching in South & East London where there are some fascinating real-life, random characters! They haven’t been ‘prepped’ or screened in any way. Nor have they spent months re-moulding themselves into a persona to imitate. The ‘truthfulness’ in a natural character is as moving as the emotion we identify with in an actor’s pathos. Life’s genuine randomness is full of fun, shock, awe and humour. I believe that there is no harm in genuine devotees of the arts and the way they own the streets. It’s entertaining to see bold mixes of styles gaining confidence in the traditionally snubbed streets of SE London.

English fashion is in a great moment of development: it is finally being recognised and taken seriously on an international level. Who are the British fashion designers that you look to as role models?

Alexander McQueen without a moment of hesitation.

When an industry is developing, it also means there is a lot of competition. Do you sometimes feel that suddenly fashion has become everyone’s cup of tea? And do you think that fast fashion has something to do with it?

Every young woman over the decades has wanted to…be associated with fashion and to appear to their peers as being ‘in the know’. It is life, it is youth and the promise of possibilities. Today, items that were previously seen as luxuries are more accessible due to the power of the high street take over. This can have a knock on effect and devalue the real precious gems that take time to design/make - they get lost in translation. Today’s consumers have become accustomed to having whatever they want at an affordable price.

Following a dream means sacrifice. The route to fashion is through long internships and unpaid work. You have started your own thing very bravely. Is it a struggle to keep a day job while trying to make your dream come true?

It is unbelievably hard to do this on my own; to start from zero with zero... probably insane! But there is nothing else I would rather do! All my passion resides in my love for the art of fashion. It’s why I do what I do and is the only route for me get where I want to be.

You have been showing at London Fashion Week for the last two seasons. Tell us all about it!

Placing orders in my first season at ON|OFF was very uplifting! It goes without saying that Anna Wintour making an appearance at the ON|OFF venue caused a lot of hysteria amongst all the designers and was indeed a memorable highlight! This season I showed at Vauxhall Fashion Scout at a presentation with Felicities PR, met many delightful people in the industry, including quite a few familiar faces!

Your new collection, called Penetrate is amazing. How would you describe the woman represented by your collections?

As a sophisticated, forward thinking mover and shaker!

What is your signature that you will always keep throughout the collections?

Print, print, print! The print is the essence to me. It allows me to tell elaborate stories and is my source and inspiration.

Tell us about your style. What are the trends you are going to follow during the next season?

My style has to be the label’s uniquely imaginative undercurrents. This comes from

harnessing two opposing worlds into a single concept through elaborate story telling in the print. I also embellish with quirky handwriting techniques and splashes of cool, edgy glamour. I always include a cutting edge shape to enhance the beauty that women possess. Forgive me, but I never follow trends, I always create them.

Will you expand your interest in prints and textiles towards other forms of art as well as fashion?

Absolutely! I am just in the midst of doing that right now, I have a huge portfolio of prints suitable for all aspects of interiors for example.