On a cosy evening in London, in a beautifully ornate lecture theatre of the V&A Museum, British fashion designer Giles Deacon, sat down with a few fashion obsessed people to have a chat about his career. For a male fashion designer, Deacon is firstly, straight and secondly, amazingly chilled out. Dressed simply in jeans, trainers and a white t-shirt, he explains, “I can’t bear the over-pretentiousness of things.”
His down-to-earth northern roots – he was born in Darlington, County Durham in 1969 – seem to have provided him with a good base for tackling the notoriously fickle and shallow fashion industry.
Career Beginnings
Deacon tells how he is an alumnus of the prestigious Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. Graduating in 1992, and was in the same class as fellow designer Hussein Chalayan, he says, “I used to sit next to Hussein, he’s not as serious as everyone thinks!”
It was also at St Martins that he met and dated for a while, stylist, co-founder of Dazed and Confused magazine (along with publisher Jefferson Hack and photographer Rankin) and magazine editor – of POP then Love - Katie Grand. He reveals that Grand still gives him input on his collections and aids in the styling of his catwalk shows.
Rather than try and launch his own label straight out of college, Deacon decided to go down the assisting path. He moved to Paris to work for French designer Jean Charles de Castelbajac for two years, he explains the attraction to the job, “I really appreciated the humorous side to Castelbajac’s work and the fact that his work is unsexy.”
Until setting up his own label in 2004, Deacon designed for Louis Vuitton and Ralph Lauren as well as Bottega Veneta, where he went to work as head designer in 1998. After the label was bought by the Gucci group in 2001, Deacon was headhunted by Tom Ford to work alongside him on Gucci womenswear.
Establishing His Own Brand
Giles Deacon was named British Designer of the Year in 2006, a mere two years after launching his own label. A ticket to his show during London Fashion Week is truly a coveted item. Deacon describes his collections as, “not for wallflowers, I design clothes to be confidence givers, I want people to feel good in them.”
Those journalists and fashion lovers lucky enough to get a ticket will be sitting alongside everyone from Harry Potter actress Emma Watson, to British TV acting legend and eclectic dresser, Su Pollard, whose appearance next to his runway excited Deacon greatly.
In 2005, Deacon collaborated with high-street store New Look and the collection was launched by Hollywood movie star Drew Barrymore. Talking about his choice to work with New Look, “I think it’s quite insulting to think that a person who can’t afford to spend £1,700 on one of our frocks therefore doesn’t understand design. That’s one of the things I liked when we met New Look. They wanted it to be different from whatever else is going on.”
A Designer Like No Other
When it came to question time at the end of the talk, an audience member inquired what was the inspiration behind his Pac-Man-inspired (Stephen Jones-made) hats for Spring / Summer '09. No references to '80s consumerism or the like here, “I just made a list of my favourite things and Pac-Man was on it, I thought it would make a cool hat.”
Deacon’s message that fashion shouldn’t be taken too seriously is a refreshing approach and one that has served him well as his career continues to flourish.
Sources:
- V&A Friday Evening Talks – On Fashion with Giles Deacon
- www.enjoyfashion.com
- www.style.com - Giles Deacon
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