Love, love, love Luella

What does a top fashion designer do in a recession?  In this whimsical industry, where models are paid £10,000 to walk a catwalk during fashion week, there are designers who neither know nor want to know about a recession.

Luella Bartley is not one of them.  The 35-year-old, recently named Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards, is all over it.  "You have to be careful at the moment and not invest heavily," she confides.  "There are lots of cuts going on in the fashion industry and it does feel hard, but it's still important to be positive."

This is typical Luella.  She's a woman who is nothing if not grounded in reality.  At Central Saint Martin's, their weird and whacky world of design nearly put her off fashion altogether.  She chose a career in journalism after college, first writing for the Evening Standard before being poached by Vogue.

When she did decide to launch her own label in 1999, she said she designed 'the kind of clothes you can get drunk and fall over in'.  They emerged as refreshing and edgy as they were girly and wearable - clothes that could be whipped on straight from the catwalk, which gained her a cult following amongst the young, not-so-young and trendy. 

Ten years on, and it's still the same.  But rather than parading around the capital, being pictured in magazines, she prefers spending her days in Cornwall, her 'getaway from the fashion industry', with her photographer partner, three children (Kip, 5, Stevie, 3, and Ned, 1) and horses.  Though trips to her London studio are a welcome break from domestic mania, she admits.

"Sometimes I just feel like I do everything badly, whereas on the good days I feel like I've got it all."

Considering how lauded she is in the industry, it's a wonder more people aren't like Luella – honest, unaffected and ultimately comfortable in her own skin.  But the truth is that she makes her life - the kids, the fashion business, the awards - look easy.  When the reality is it can be anything but.

"It's difficult," she admits, "and a real juggle.  Sometimes I just feel like I do everything badly, whereas on the good days I feel like I've got it all." 

Her biggest challenge has undoubtedly been learning the business side of fashion.  "It was with blind enthusiasm that I started," she laughs, "I knew nothing.  I think if I knew then what I know now, it might have produced a different decision.  You don't know what you're getting yourself into, and it's all very much out in the open because you learn as you go."

The main struggle for a designer, she says, is realising your ideas.  "People don't know the limitations that designers put on themselves.  There are always fabric issues or manufacturing issues or some kind of issue that means it's very hard to get the results you want.  And you really have to push to achieve each collection.  It's very hard to be very creative and commercially clever, but that's what fashion designers have to do these days."

She thinks London designers are finally getting better at this, and are doing well in their own right rather than having to leave the country for jobs.  Luella should know, having shown in New York for six and a half years before returning to London Fashion Week in a hotly pursued blaze in 2007.  Her timing, she thinks, was spot on.  "I think in a recession, London's creativity really shines through, so it's an important place to be at the moment."

It's certainly seems to be the case for her right now.  In September, she unveiled her first collection of shoes - all bubblegum colours, feminine aesthetic and trademark edge – which were so well received that she's unveiling a commercial collection at her A/W 09 show this month.  She's also opened her first flagship store, is doing her first pre-collection and launching new accessory lines alongside her much sought-after handbags. 

Err, what happened to 'being careful and not investing heavily'?  Well, there's another element to a recession that Luella passionately believes in – and that's to push yourself creatively.  "I think people want to be lifted out of recession, and you can lift spirits with fashion and by experimenting with clothes.  My personal philosophy is it's time to get more, rather than less creative."

In truth, expansion was only really a matter of time.  The Luella brand is known worldwide, demand for her clothes, shoes and accessories is overwhelming, and she's already done stellar collaborations which have had mass market appeal with O'Neill's and Urban Outfitters last year, and Target, the American chain, three years ago.  That was a personal highlight, she says.  "It was amazing because it was just so huge and very exciting to reach so many people."

"It's very hard to be very creative and commercially clever, but that's what fashion designers have to do these days."

She doesn't, however, have any ambition to grow Luella to that proportion, and still enjoys the small elements of running her own label, like writing the press releases for her collections and building up the story behind her designs.  To that end, she says she won't go into menswear anytime soon, as 'it's a whole different thing' whereas she feels like she knows what girls like 'because I am a girl'.

Keeping creative control while expanding with integrity is her ultimate goal, though there's always her fallback option if things do go wrong; 'a life ensconced in Cornwall with lots of horses and lots of children'.  But then the honesty creeps back.  "I say that but I'd probably still have to make a business.  For me, home and career really balance and inform each other.  I don't think I'd be one without the other," she shrugs. 

Visit the Luella flagship store at 25 Brook Street, London W1K, or online at www.luella.com

By Barbara Walshe