Welsh designer mixes wool with leather
Instead of sticking with models, Welsh designer Jayne Pierson sent ballerinas down the runway in her biggest show at London Fashion Week, wearing her unusual textile – a fusion of wool and leather.
A Coleg Sir Gar graduate, Ms Pierson trained with Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood, and was in London to show her spring/summer 2012 collection on 18 September, 2011.
For the collection, she’s collaborated to create a ‘new’ textile – a fusion of wool and leather with her long-term friend, knitwear designer, St Martin’s graduate Derek Lawlor.
Toshow off the results, Ms Pierson sent 10 prima ballerinas from the Royal Ballet down the catwalk in what she described as “an intercultural world, organic structures and morphing textures”.
Comprising a total 25 looks, the event was the result of a partnership project which began in May, and has Ms Pierson’s signature look “at its core”.
“It hasn’t been a case of shoe-horning in the wool into a collection of leather,” Ms Pierson told local media in Wales. “The knitwear is integrated in the leather, what we’ve created is something very unusual, we’ve really pushed the boundaries.”
The result is a fabric with the appearance of very soft suede, on maxi skirts, fishtail dresses with elaborate layered bustles and sophisticated skirt suits in champagnes, caramels and splashes of tangerine.
“You have this knitted texture but it’s a newly-developed textile,” said Ms Pierson. “I’d done leather tailoring, I’ve worked with goat skin and lamb hide but what we have here has never existed before.”
