INTERVIEW: Meet the ATELIER100 London Designers Challenging the Fashion Industry
Introducing Zoe Horgan, Clara Chu and Savvas Alexander.
Atelier100, H&M and Ingka Group’s mentoring partnership is officially making its London debut. Earlier this year, 13 creatives working across different disciplines, product categories and aesthetic styles were selected to be nurtured and supported. Their first collection of products is now available to shop online and in the brand’s London retail space: an eclectic, sustainability-driven selection of furniture, fashion, accessories and homeware by some of the most exciting talents in the capital’s creative scene.
Atelier100 is a model for local supply, manufacturing and distribution and exists as proof of a new and more sustainable approach to making. The store only selects local designers that keep their design and production in the immediate area to reduce environmental impact, helping build a local supply chain and supporting local economies. The selected creatives have put sustainability at the core of their designs, only producing a limited range of pieces using eco-friendly practices
Hypebae recently sat down with the three emerging fashion designers part of the program to get to know them better and talk about their craft, sources of inspiration and what Atelier100 has meant to them. Keep scrolling to read our exclusive interview.
Zoe Horgan
Atelier100
Atelier100
Atelier100
Atelier100
What are you passionate about and what inspired your love for making?
I love and deeply respect how technical knitwear is and I think that’s where my passion for it lies. I feel inspired by textures and am a perfectionist in how to achieve my desired vision for a fabric. I think the moment I started using knitting machines, I got lost in my own world of creating and making something with my hands — it’s purely physical!
What do you hope to bring to the fashion industry?
I hope to bring an awareness of sustainability, as well as a sense that behind every piece of clothing, there is someone who has physically made it. I feel this has become an abstract concept in how fashion presents itself. Clothing becomes a commodity and the personal element is often lost. As every piece I produce is handmade, I hope to reaffirm this sense of intimate exchange between the maker and the wearer.
How has Atelier100 helped you as an emerging designer in London?
Atelier100 gave me the incredible opportunity to produce a small production run with the freedom to create anything I wanted. They provided me with industry contacts that have advised me about my brand, which has helped me grow in ways I could never imagine. Also, being part of a local community of creatives has been great fun and inspiring.
Clara Chu
Atelier100
Atelier100
Atelier100
Atelier100
Atelier100
Atelier100
Atelier100
Atelier100
What are you passionate about and what inspired your love for making?
What inspires my love for making the most comes from the tactility of objects I discover, see or use. Whether it is a unique piece like an Alessi bottle opener or an anonymous object like a door stopper, their shapes and forms fascinate me — I become obsessed with finding out how they were constructed and what I could do with them. Obscure, unusual and funny materials definitely spark my imagination and creative practice. I love the surprise element of people when they find out what my bags are made of.
What do you hope to bring to the fashion industry?
I hope to bring a different production system that is slower and on a smaller scale — one that involves the community in the sourcing and designing processes. I also want to popularize alternative ways of manufacturing by utilizing unusual raw materials, such as using an electrical wire instead of threads. Overall, I want people to feel inspired and encouraged to reuse, upcycle and not be afraid of color.
How has Atelier100 helped you as an emerging designer in London?
On top of funding opportunities, I’ve gained valuable advice and support on business management, finances, material sourcing strategies, trend forecasting and site visits to other manufacturers in London. This knowledge and guidance on administration are helping me create a more accessible and efficient business model. It has also been great networking and learning from like-minded emerging artists and designers, part of Atelier100.
Savvas Alexander
Atelier100
Atelier100
Atelier100
Atelier100
What are you passionate about and what inspired your love for making?
I love all things product design, working with new materials, exploring machinery and developing new systems for fashion design and production. When I was younger, I was always inspired by the days of Apple under Steve Jobs; the innovation, the design, the feeling behind it all — I think this really had a lasting effect on me as I have grown into becoming a designer myself. When it comes to my personal creative language, I like to reduce as much as possible, be it using fewer seams to construct garments, or minimizing finishing techniques to create ultra-minimal designs, it’s the beauty in the simplicity combined with modernizing fashion-making.
What do you hope to bring to the fashion industry?
I really want to challenge over-consumption and over-production within the industry long-term by developing localized systems for how we make and buy clothes. I think we can be more considerate with what we wear, buying pieces we have a connection to and want to wear for a long time. I’m excited to continue exploring new systems and innovation for fashion and hopefully become a small part of a large industry shift toward a better future.
How has Atelier100 helped you as an emerging designer in London?
Having just graduated from the RCA, I was searching for a way to continue pursuing my creative practice beyond college and bringing it into the real world — I am very grateful to Atelier100 for giving me the chance to do this. Their funding was crucial in allowing me to explore and produce my capsule range alongside giving me the physical retail space and online platform to start selling and discovering my community. I’ve learned a lot from the program and mentorship I have been given and I’m hoping to use this as a springboard to developing a successful business in the future.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
