Samuel Dougal (BA (Hons) Bespoke Tailoring 2010 graduate) used the social networking site Twitter to get in touch with Paloma Faith to design her some pieces.
Paloma Faith photographed by Finlay MacKay in Samuel's design
Photography by Finlay MacKay
Here Samuel tells Roma Vaccaro about the experience:
Tell me about the collaboration with Paloma Faith. How exciting!
I was 20 at the time, and was in the middle of my final collection, but felt really uninspired by everything. The whole year was dedicated to the collection and I was forgetting why I was even doing it. So I wanted to do something I was proud of before I reached my 21st birthday. So one afternoon, I sent her a message through twitter telling her I wanted to design and make her something, and she responded within hours.
What happened?
I went to her house to take her measurements and we spoke about what was possible. Paloma gave me three films to take home and watch for inspiration including; ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’, ’2046′ and ‘The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover’. After watching I put pencil to paper and I came up with about 15 different designs. Paloma and I both looked at all of them and we decided on one, which turned out to be the one from the photo shown here. It took three fittings, and a month of solid work, but I did it.
Tell me about the colours and materials used
Red was the chosen colour and the cloth I chose was a blood red tweed with a reflective yarn woven into the design from ‘Dashing Tweeds. The idea was based around a traditional theme with a modern twist, which is much like Paloma herself!
When did Paloma where it?
Paloma wore it to the Elle Style Awards. Following that I was featured in the April 2010 issue of Elle magazine. I later arranged for world-renowned photographer Finlay MacKay to photograph her in it again. How did I feel? – I cannot describe. I achieved my goal.
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