The Midas Touch

Costumes in movies, book illustrations and the wardrobes of both my grandmothers helped develop my earliest ideas about fashion. The immersive experience that is film, where set design, location and costume put you into the narrative, has always been my favourite form of escapism into another world and era. The James Bond film ‘Goldfinger (1964), is a major source of inspiration for this collection. The movie encapsulates a world of 1960s sophistication, glamour and travel. The franchise created a seductive ideal of what it meant to be British. My designs are intended as a form of love letter to the traditions of Scottish craftsmanship, heritage, humour and eccentricity all projected to a contemporary consumer. I’m obsessed with the looks of the ‘Bond Girls’, as each actress over the decades is so distinctive in character and style. The muse for my collection is my grandmother, herself a student at GSA in the 1950s, she epitomises the women of her day; first to go into higher education, juggling family and work, quietly pioneering the way, the unsung heroine turned Bond girl in my imagination. Nothing inspires me more than looking at the past, particularly at my family history, it is a key and personal link to a time which I will never experience, only absorb through objects, readings, images and films. As a child visiting her house always captured my imagination. It is a stage set of furniture, objects and clothing that narrates every era of her life. My narrative is the combination of James Bond’s timeless cinematography intertwined with my grandmother, her life and objects, as the main character in my collection.