By India Wright

It’s London Fashion Week and I want to be part of it. I’m three years into an architecture degree but am planning a swap to fashion. For part of my portfolio I’ve decided to stage my own show, wearing a dress I designed and made.
I’ve always wanted to be a fashion designer, but somehow ended up studying architecture. Courrèges trained as an architect and I know that Zaha Hadid has designed clothes. Creating garments for living in – rather than spaces – is a dream I intend to make a reality.
I’ve constructed this figure-accentuating, structurally expressive dress of black laser-cut leather that I stitched together by hand. I’ve done my own hair and make-up and I’ll be modelling, too. I want to use LFW as a stage for my ‘show’. If I’m fortunate, I’ll get talent-spotted. I can also use the opportunity to seek advice from people in the business.
Talk about luck, a friend introduces me to Sarah Mower, the BFC’s Ambassador for Emerging Talent. “Go and see Louise Wilson and do the MA at Saint Martins. With that dress and a portfolio, you’ll get in.” Her words inspire me immensely and my slow progress around the courtyard at Somerset House is punctuated with photo opportunities. Twelve people, including photographers from Stylesignal, Facehunter, London Lite and Visit Britain took my picture (they can’t all be wrong, can they?). I then get chatting with two of the Vogue fashion assistants, Michelle Duguid and Gillian Wilkins. They reckon that the transition from one three-dimensional discipline to another would be complementary.
I vow that the next time I show, it will be the real thing.
Photography by Tyrone Lebon

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