A series of visits to Spitalfields London E1 and the subsequent links to FASHION - HAMISH MORROW - BYBLOS - KRIZIA

A   series of visits to Spitalfields London  E1 

and the subsequent  links to FASHION

 Hamish Morrow - Byblos - Krizia

swimsuit by Hamish Morrow

  

During the last decade I've been a regular visitor to many parts of this thriving and historical part of East London which sits on the edge of The City of London, the financial sector.

For four years I was a lecturer at The Istituto Marangoni where I was introducing the students that came from every part of the world as to the way that FASHION brands' revenues could be increased by tasteful extension of the brand by creating partnerships with suitable manufactures in areas that were not the brand's expertise and forte. A dress manufacturer not necessarily knowing how to manufacture watches or fragrance.

'Horse for courses'

My lectures were predominantly a racounteurs' anecdotal stories and situations from  my business travels around the globe over the last 30 years.

Whilst in the Istitito's home in Fashion St I would regularly during my break or at the end of the day walk up to Brick Lane famous for cloth (Huguenots 18th century) and garment making (19th/20th century Jewish immigrants) and latterly similar 'out working ' and 'making up' rooms for the fashion sector by the Bangladeshi/Pakistani  communities. Each of these influxes  from overseas brought with them their particular cuisine and today Brick Lane has the best selection of cafes and restaurants of  Bangladeshi/Pakistani dishes.

My visits through Brick Lane were invariably to see my designer friend HAMISH MORROW

Hamish originally from South Africa joined Central St Martins in 1989 and turned out to be a very innovative and leading edge designer where over the years he had his own catwalk shows and worked a great deal in Italy with brands such as Byblos and Krizia.

The BYBLOS adverts and pictures below are from 1991 to 2005

 The KRIZIA adverts and pictures below are from1976 to 2005

 I believe Hamish's skills were recognised by Carmen Busquets when she formed CoutureLab and he was regularly featured on the Yoox.com site. You might recall that Carmen Busquets from Caracas Venezuela was one of the original investors alongside Natalie Massenet in Net a Porter which was recently sold to the Richemont Group of Cartier, Dunhill, Van Cleef & Arpels and Chloe fame

I travelled up to Northumberland to a special exhibition at Belsay Hall in 2004 where the contained but derelict house had previously been stripped of all it's fixtures and fittings but was totally weatherproof and in sound order.

The ruins of the original Belsay Hall

Belsay Hall

 
 Hamish had been selected by the organisers to show his artistic and leading edge designs together with his garment making skills alongside Paul Smith, Stella McCartney and others.

Hamish's exhibit

View of a room within the ruins

The exhibition was so varied and in the most spectacular location and was displayed in the ruins of the original house as well as in Belsay Hall , very atmospheric.

The out look from the house looked over a shallow valley to a bank of rhododendrons that stretched laterally as far as the eye could see. The other memory which I can still enjoy today in my own garden was that they had block planted a number of flower beds near to the house with Bishop of Llandaff dahlias - total magic and an inspiration .

Unbelievably there used to be a very snobbish attitude to dahlias, the alledged gardening experts saying that dahlias were far to ostentacious for normal/formal gardens and that they were only fit to be planted as a cutting flower to be grown in allotments - it's hard to believe that these attitudes existed !!!!!!!!!!!

The current house was made of a local stone with a particular patina and some very farsighted landscape architect decided to leave the quarry from where the stone was excavated as a feature. The Quarry Garden is adjacent to the house and you can walk through it t where it retains its own micro climate and offers the opportunity to grow some pretty exotic plants and shrubs
.

All images used on the Leslie Creasey Blog are from my hand clipped archive documenting 35 years of Style and Design media.  For all enquiries please contact leslie@charismatic-brands.com.