Isabelle Randall

Who are you?

My name is Isabelle Randall and I am a fashion designer of womenswear and I just branched into menswear. I have been running my own fashion design business since April 2004 so I am just at the end of my second year.

Can you describe your creative process?

I aim at the person, someone who wants to dress individually but still feel fashionable. It doesn’t have to be a classic cut to do this, my work is timeless but it isn’t staid. Every season I play with fabrics and colours so that its sharp, its new and its still about dressing individually. I really encourage that, its not about wearing labels form top to toe. I encourage my clients to have some fun and even put a bit of Oxfam in with my designs! I think people have forgotten that fashion is about having fun. I don’t have a target age nor, is it about how someone looks physically, its not their size its about what are they thinking and who are they. As a result, my client’s ages range from 20 to 60.

In terms of running a business what exactly do you do?

I don’t just design. I am the only employee in the company so I do everything from running the business, to accounts, to doing all the press, promo, designing, manufacturing and selling. It’s vast.   

What attracted you to working in the North East?

It was actually being in London, working in the fashion industry, doing all the London Fashion weeks and working for designers.  It was a real eye opener about what the fashion industry is about and I realised that that was not why I got into fashion.

The industry is very kiss, kiss, who’s who, who’s been seen with who and so on. It I felt that it wasn’t necessarily about talent; and that disappointed me, it was more about who you knew and I wasn’t prepared to change. You notice so many people around you are changing. The “oh darling” you know – there’s a lot of that. I was doing the London Fashion weeks and doing a show for Roland Klein and he had a famous supermodel that would come in late, after the show had started and then refuse to wear certain clothes. I was becoming jaded by the whole scene.

I got into fashion for the love of the clothes, the fabrics and the ability to create a different look. Its our show, its our outer image, I love all that playing with themes, ideas and different attitudes.

I needed time to refresh and think about what I want to do. I came to Aberdeen, initially for a month, to visit my brother and Dad who were working here, and to have a break. That was in l997 and loved I it, I just loved being away from the industry. I found my work got better up here where I wasn’t being smothered by the competition and all the other rubbish. I felt creatively free and that was refreshing, it was great and I enjoyed it. However I soon realised that I wasn’t ready to start a business and there wasn’t an industry in Aberdeen that I could go and work in.

The solution - I changed industries and went into web design. I started phoning up the IT companies and multi-media companies and go and show my portfolio and they were impressed but concerned that I couldn’t use the software like Photoshop, illustrator and dream weaver. So, I went to studios and didn’t really get anywhere with them until, I went to look round a company at the Bridge of Don. I got on with them and they liked my work but again they said go away and learn the software and then come back. Well I said I will work for free – I want experience and I don’t care I will work for free and he said he can’t have that and he ended up paying me £8 an hour and I leaned on the job.  So that was the new me, I was away from the superficial rubbish and I found the new challenge exciting and that I had an aptitude for web design.

Later, I applied for work abroad because I wanted to try living and working abroad. I got work in Brussels and ended up becoming a Senior Web Designer, I progressed well and I had staff under me. I worked for a small; start up company in Brussels an Internet Bank, before all the others set up. It was very innovative and the owner was Swedish so we had offices in Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, Brussels and Finland. I flew to all those offices as the web designer. Instead of just doing one corporate web site, I localised each one so that if you were Finnish your thought this bank was in Finland and, if you were Dutch you thought it was in the Netherlands and so on. That was great I had always wanted to jet on a plane every month but after a year you soon get exhausted.

The project work was great but, web the maintenance was very boring and I would fall asleep at the computer. What was keeping me going was that even though I was working as a web designer I still had private clients for my fashion designs. I was still doing made to measure and still making my own clothes. I hadn’t lost my love for fashion, it was still there, I just didn’t like the industry and still didn’t want to be involved with it. They were just little dreams that I wanted to realise and it just got rid of all that anger bitterness and disappointment that I had in London and opened my eyes to working with different nationalities and different countries and also proving to myself that I could cross industries and I could have a second trade that ok if the business doesn’t work tomorrow its a trade I could go back to and I think a lot of people are doing that now we are very multi-skilled people.

After a couple of years in Brussels I missed home and wanted to come back. In 2003 I returned and worked at the University of Aberdeen as a Web Designer for a year. I just knew that year that I wanted to go back to fashion and I run my own business whether it worked or not I had to it. It’s a dream that I always wanted to realise and I now felt ready to do it so, I just took that chance and in 2004 I set up on my own in Aberdeen.

What have been the high points in your career?

A high point was gaining a first class degree in fashion and having a really successful degree show. I was featured in a documentary on TV, they filmed me, interviewed me, filmed the catwalk show and then when I moved to London they came down six months later and interviewed me down there.  My designs were in the newspapers at l8 and by the time I was 21 I was featured in a television documentary.

I guess starting a business was a dream come true. Selling collections to the B’s Knees was just wonderful.

Another huge high point was the trade show I did last September. Over about l80 designers applied for take part and but was only about 75 places. The big people of the industry like Isabella Blow were screening it, I had to take my garments they didn’t even see me or ask me any questions, they you they just looked at the clothes. It was all on the merit of the clothes. Even though I am up here in Aberdeen, even though Isabelle Randall label is not governed by trend. My clothes are fashionable and will last because they are not just this season’s colours or trend. Even though I am up here in Aberdeen, even though Isabelle Randall label is not governed by trend. My clothes are fashionable and will last because they are not just this season’s colours or trend. I got accepted and getting that letter just made me want to scream it was just great. 

What have been the low points in your career?

London was a low point. It made me street savvy and I learnt a lot about the industry and but it was mentally challenging.

What changes would you like to see in the industry?

I love age; I think the older and wiser we are the more comfortable we are. The more you know yourself the better your work, or your career, or your business. Life throws you many challenges and opportunities for change but many opportunities for start up funding is aimed at the very young. I would love to change that, it is something that does need looking at.  Its disappointing that people are held back because of age.

What career route did you take after leaving school?

I started my education in fashion at l6 at local college (Batley School of Art, its now Dewsbury College). It was a very, very successful college, based in West Yorkshire; it was as good as any of the London Colleges. I did a BTEC National Diploma 2 year course and I wasn’t that great a designer at the end of it -I would get passes or merits but never distinctions. There were some absolutely amazing designers like Alistair Ward and some very famous designers such as Christopher Bailey, now head of Burberry.

I didn’t shine and I would get pulled into the office on a regular basis where I would be told don’t look at what other people are doing concentrate on yourself. I would constantly be comparing myself, I still do it today and its not a good thing. It can dishearten you, it doesn’t matter what anyone else is doing. I would really put that out to all the students yes, there will be people better than you on your course and worse than you but that’s not what it’s about its about focusing on what you are doing and developing what you are doing.  

I wasn’t a great student but from there applied to do a BA Hons degree at Leeds University. The degree was all about developing your creativity as a designer, long projects and very few hours of lectures. At the start of my final year a designer from the industry in London came to work at the university. He was really inspiring and he liked my work, his belief in my work excelled me and I flew. I overtook everybody and just had an exceptionally brilliant final year and came out with a first class honours degree.

I applied to the Royal College of Art and was accepted. I always thought of London as a stepping-stone.  It wasn’t somewhere where I wanted to stay I wanted to go to Paris or New York or Milan I wasn’t keen on London but anyway that took me down there.  The RCA was my introduction to the industry people like; Gianni Versace, Hardy Armis, Bella Freud and the like would come in talent spotting I would make my connections from that. So once I left the RCA I started calling these people – hey remember me - and got in that way.  

Working for haute couture designers isn’t quite what I had imagined. It can be pretty grim. They are not interested in other designers, they are interested in helpers. I understand that now having my own business but at the time I was pretty grumpy about it all. I wanted to be part of it so I adapted my skills; I discovered that I would need to be as good a machinist as I am a designer. Its fine to be able to draw pretty pictures but you’ve got to be able to understand how to construct them. Your designs will be far better if you understand the manufacturing and if you can sew, you can develop your sewing in such a way that you can make some fantastic pieces. I really worked quite intensely alongside the technicians when I worked for other designers because I knew they were not interested in my design ability. I then worked as a machinist for them, or a pattern cutter, and I would watch what was happening with the mechanics of it all so that my technical skills could match my design skills.

What advice would you give to anyone embarking on a creative career?

I would say to everyone, unless you are lucky or, you have got some good contacts its a rough road in the creative sector, its not easy. Sometimes you feel that fashion design is rather like being an actor, investors and business advisors just don’t take you seriously. The creative sector is still is still not treated on par with other industries that are definitely going to make money. Fashion that’s just airy-fairy silliness, there’s not a guaranteed return on capital investment and this makes potential investors and funders nervous.

You have to like change and be prepared to adjust your course constantly, you have to be flexible, and you have to bend with the wind because otherwise you will just snap.

You have to think out of the box you have to be creative when its just you and you are in a challenging industry like fashion it takes many years to establish a label so you just have to be very creative in what you do. 

Is it easy being based in Aberdeen?

I’m constantly looking for help or aid because there is only so much you can do on your own. No matter how good you are you need the right publicity, or the right venue, or the right person with the right contacts. 

Last year I had heard of a fashion resource centre in London and I went down and had an interview with the owner. Luckily and he was blown over by my work and really impressed because there are not many designers who can design, construct, manufacture and sell. He would look at the garments inside out – did you make this – almost not believing me.   He said I can’t help you if you are in Aberdeen you need to move down here, to London. I seriously thought about moving down but I have a partner here and family and friends and I love the way of life here and I truly believe especially how people work with the Internet now – people work from home why not why can’t I.  I know I’m carving a new path in the industry but I believe in it why can’t I live where I am happiest and still make a success of the business?    I am making life difficult for myself but that’s typical of my personality I don’t go down the easy routes.    So he wants to help but not from up here. 

Many of the shops in Aberdeen will only sell brand names. I think they should give us a chance, they should all be grouping together to promote the a designers on their doorstep, after all they are right in the heart of a cosmopolitan city where you have all nationalities, with all types of tastes. And then further a field, I tried the boutiques in Edinburgh you are an unknown designer we can’t take you.

I went to an event in Leeds its a competition that's held once a year once a year called Fashion Fringe. Harvey Nicols were there. I had a glass of champagne for confidence and then I went straight over to the merchandise buyer. I was wearing all my own clothes because you have to be a walking advertisement. He loved what I was wearing and said that he could see my clothes on the second floor of Harvey Nicols in Knightsbridge – music to my ears. I followed this up, they loved my work, and they thought that I had some great pieces, some key pieces, but the problem was that I don’t manufacture enough. They buy mass productions they asked me to get in touch once I had a factory.   But to get a factory you need to know what you are going to sell it’s a catch twenty-two.  I am now in contact with a factory in London and one in India but again; you need the orders in, to do that.   Sometimes I feel as though I’m in a circular pool swimming round and round.

I sell work on line but I think people are still nervous about buying online. The big sites like Amazon hugely successful okay, that’s books not clothes, but the big department stores Harvey Nics, Harrods and Selfridges because they are well known people feel safe buying there.

People that have viewed my site and like my work have actually contacted me and travelled to see my designs.  I had a client from the Black Isle who would drive down for fittings and another from North Africa who would fly over for fittings its very extravagant but that’s they way they wanted to do, they wanted made to measure versions. They really do get star treatment when they come for made to measures or when I go to them. There are a number of fittings where we discuss and collaborate over the design.

Can you describe an average day?

No I can’t.  

I don’t have an average day. With fashion its seasonal, in a sense yes, you do your Autumn Winter and it takes six months from start to finish from an idea in your head to sorting fabrics, to doing scrap books and developing into patterns, because I do all the patterns, they are all original and from there I do mock up garments.  So all of that and then trying it on and then taking if off and changing the pattern and trying it on, you know you can only design so much on two dimensional on a piece of paper but once you start working with the mannequin or a model the designs just really start to develop and so its a long process but your high points are January, February, August and September if you are exhibiting.    

Is easy to establish a work life balance?

Well it used to be 12 hour days, seven day weeks but its not really clever to do that because you are there and you are probably burning an awful lot of energy worrying rather than being productive.  So my partner would drag me away and sit me down and say this is not good.    

It is vital that you have support from friends and family, it sounds corny but it’s so true.   Just having that mental and emotional support can really take you forward and keep you going because you will have your down days.  Especially being up here in the North East of Scotland, you know the north of Scotland, never mind the north of England. There is not an established fashion or textile industry up here at all. Professionally, I’m almost on my own.

If you could do it all again, would you?

You know half of me would say I would be a lawyer or something like that but the other half of me says its in my blood, its my life. It always has been, despite the days you know, when I really hate it and wonder why can’t be normal.  My partner really admires me because he has just never seen anyone with so much drive and determination. I think because its in my blood and you can’t change that, its you, its your building blocks, so you have to embrace who you are. This business may work, it may not, it could fail tomorrow but, at least I have done it and I am proud of the work that I have done and proud of my collections. You’ve got to try things its not going to kill you.