Voulue

British Fashion Awards 2009

Emma Hill

Emma may have been acclaimed the Queen of Mulberry, but will she rise to the top over her fellow nominees? Emma Hill is the creative director of the fashion house of Mulberry.” Le style Anglais” formed in the same year as the groups “Queen” and “Eagles”, and when Led Zepplin released “Stairway to Heaven”. Emma was just about toddling at the time, and being influenced by the post 60’s aura from her parents, especially  from her artistic Mother. Emma’s home was filled with collection of  images  and artistic literature ,during a recent interview with the Times Emma stated ,“I love fashion and I want to wear fashion, but it’s something to be enjoyed, not be intimidated by. Most women I know want to feel better, cooler or sexier — and they don’t want to look like fashion victims. It’s like that thing of wearing all-black all the time. In the 1980s, it was the height of chic, but now I think it’s ageing.”

Before Mulberry, Emma had spent over a decade in New York, designing accessories for Calvin Klein, Gap and Marc Jacobs. She recently stated one of Voulue’s philosophical ideals that  “The idea of a single It-bag has undergone a really interesting evolution of late,” and that “The concept of a status bag has slowly been replaced with an ideal of having more individuality.”This is our aim at Voulue to bring you new and artisitic designers.

Though  individuality will not be damaging to the iconic British leather label of Mulberry, as they produce some very artistic creations which are not purely there because of the brand name. Mulberry for Apple, is their latest venture, which caters for the owners of MacBooks and Iphone holders to match your Mulberry handbags, lets hope they dont tumble down like the apples on Mulbery’s website!

Nicholas Kirkwood

Nicholas’s artistic creations are fantastic and wearable, even away from any “red carpet event”. He states “It’s about silhouettes… It’s about the shape of the last and about the shape of the actual pattern that’s drawn onto the last, and color or material combinations. I don’t use anything that’s stuck onto the shoe. In certain ways it’s architectural, I suppose. Old-fashioned buildings like to be very decorative on the outside, but the basic shape is still a block, whereas modern buildings are more concerned about the actual shape of the building itself, rather than what’s put on as ornamentation. That’s sort of the way I try to think of my shoes in a sense, especially when it comes to the heels.”

It is more than an artistic eye that is required in shoe construction, it is the mind of an engineer so you can equate the structure to weight ratio required to pivot you on a four to six inch high stilletto. Just look at this design piece:

Katie Hillier

Accessory designer Katie Hillier will complete this trio of nominees She is a lucky girl to have a collection of over 500 handbags. “They are not all designer, though. I keep them at the office in clear boxes from B&Q, labelled according to type – soft bags, 50s patent bags – it’s like a little store. Normally I use a couple each season. At the moment I’m carrying next season’s bag for Marc by Marc Jacobs – I’m wear-testing it.”

After graduating from the University of Westminster in 1997  Katie has produced a  succesful  and desired range of accessory  designs supplying a  broad range of designers, including Hugo Boss, Luella, Clements Ribeiro, Bill Amberg, Giles Deacon, Salvatore Ferragamo, Stella McCartney, Sophia Kokosalaki, Armand Basi, Daks, House of Holland, Loewe and Norton & Sons.

As you can see Katie is not only into handbags but her talents spread across boundaries, from shoes to jewellery. She may just take the edge with her broad popularity in both the consumer and designer market compared with the other nominees. Katie is an all rounder with a reservoir of yet un-tapped  talent waiting to flood on to the market over the comming years. Voulue thinks she will walk away with the award…what do you think?