THE final run-up to London Fashion Week can be a hectic one for designers, who typically spend every waking hour in the studio finishing pieces, arranging castings and fittings with models, and generally panicking that they're not going to get it all done on time.
Scottish designer Deryck Walker, 31, a rising star on the menswear scene who next week will also show his inaugural womenswear collection in London under the Glasgow: Scotland with style Design Collective banner, says that his mood is flitting betwee
n sheer panic and total relaxation.
When we meet at his small studio in east London, he is, thankfully, swinging towards the latter. Walker, who grew up in Bishopbriggs, possesses a jolly Glaswegian charm, a ferocious giggle and a sense of humour straight out of a Carry On film.
Perched on a high stool like a naughty schoolboy, he is taking a break from the sewing machine with a cup of tea and a Tunnocks Tea Cake. "They're the way to my heart," he tells me. "I'm such a wee Glasgow housewife aren't I?"
Tall and slim, with a shock of bleached-blonde hair, he wears his own designs: black leather ankle boots with panels of coloured tape in the style of Glasgow artist Jim Lambie and a simple, sharp white shirt with a contrasting collar that, when he turns around, reveals an intricate geometric pattern.
This approach is one that Walker employs ruthlessly in his designs. Whether a shirt, a dress or a jacket, many of his pieces are seemingly simple, even staid, until a second glance or a different angle reveals a complicated piece of construction - an aluminium detail, say, or mismatched pockets.
His studio is immaculate. Despite the fact that it's a matter of days before he shows his collection, he insists on sweeping and mopping the floor constantly, and tidies obsessively. From the ceiling, a flock of white paper windmills - Walker's trademark - is suspended. "If there's a way to sum up what I do, it's like a windmill. Quite simple, but simply beautiful. Easy but interesting," he says.
Pieces of bright paper cut and folded into geometric patterns adorn the walls. "Experiments," he says, pointing to a few of them. "Some of them work, some of them don't."
Everything has its own place, nothing is scattered around, and the small, sunny room is gleaming. On a balcony outside, one of six students helping Walker put the show together is spray-painting some strips of aluminium to be used on the cuff of a shirt. Inside, the other students busy themselves cutting small letters out of cork. The letters will be painted white and will spill across the lapel of another shirt.
"The theme of this collection is 'information,'" explains Walker. "When I put together a collection, the concept is always a story. I've been doing menswear for a while now, and now that I'm showing my first womenswear collection at London Fashion Week, I wanted to gather together all the information, all the things I've learned over the years for this collection."
His move into womenswear came about, Walker says, as a result of his feeling that he had explored menswear as far as he could. Working in uncharted territory has not been without its setbacks. He points out a pair of trousers on a rail, masculine in style but designed for women. A seam in the buttock region has burst open - because Walker overlooked the fact that women have wider, rounder bottoms than men. It's what you might call a steep learning curve...
With experience working for Robert Carey Williams, Versace and Comme des Garçons, Walker has certainly gleaned a lot of information here. Unlike some of the younger designers who are being supported by the Glasgow: Scotland with style Design Collective, Walker has been working in the industry since he left school, aged 16, to study fashion at Cardonald College. He moved to London with the intention of applying to Central St Martins, but after landing a job as an assistant to Robert Carey Williams, he was quickly "swept up by the whole London thing".
He set up his menswear label in 2004 from a studio in Glasgow, keen to prove that it is possible to run a successful fashion label from Scotland, but soon found that he needed to move back down to London.
"I do feel like there's an incredible talent coming out of Scotland at the moment, but I just have to be in London because there's so much going on here," he says with a slightly resigned sigh. "People used to laugh at Scotland, but the generation of Scottish talent at the moment is unbelievable, and we need to acknowledge that. I do miss Glasgow when I'm away. There is just such a creative hub there at the moment, it's brilliant."
He has no Scottish outlet at present, selling his designs at the cutting-edge Dover Street Market in London and, as of this season, via a showroom in Paris. But there are plans afoot, he reveals, for a retail project in the site recently inhabited by Comme des Garçons' temporary guerrilla store in Glasgow. Watch that space.
Walker says that Glasgow's famously 'gallus' sense of style is an inspiration for his work: "People in Glasgow are very brave with their sense of style and I really admire that. I think that it's a working-class thing.
"They don't always get it quite right, but they go for it, and some of my designs take inspiration from that bravery."
Indeed. Much of his menswear features transparent panels, and there's a shirt dress for men as well. Other pieces are more reserved. Despite some of his more adventurous work, it is important to Walker that his designs are very wearable.
The bulk of his collection is made up of crisp shirts with quirky detailing, classic tailored suits with a twist, and a neutral colour palette, with flashes of powder blue and cool yellows.
As he flips excitedly through the unfinished pieces on the rails in his studio, he explains that this is the first of his collections with which he is truly satisfied, since the support he has received from the Glasgow: Scotland with style Design Collective has allowed him to commit more time and money to his work.
"I've been round the block, but it's still very difficult. To have support from your home town through the Design Collective is wonderful. It allows all of the designers involved to really explore what they want to do. I've been able to develop my collection the way I want to. This is the first collection where I've had the time and resources to really do what I want to do... to the standard I want."
After 15 years in the industry, and with support from the Glasgow Design Collective, Walker's work is finally being noticed, with references to his work appearing in the fashion press in the run-up to next week's event. He hopes that, after spending his 20s struggling to make ends meet, balancing designing with jobs in call centres and waiting tables, next week's show will herald his big break.
"I'd like to start really making a living out of this, keep some normal working hours, go home occasionally, and pay these guys money, instead of just ordering in pizza to keep them happy," he says, gesturing to the six young students who are busy cutting, gluing, stitching and spray-painting.
The show is on Monday, he says, taking a deep breath and laughing, as if it's just hit him that it's so close. "But I'm feeling great about this. I get really excited about things and I need to calm myself down. I feel like a giddy teenager."
And with that, he jumps up excitedly to fix a detail on a shirt cuff, before picking up the phone to order more pizza.
• For more information go to
www.londonfashionweek.co.ukTHE GLASGOW BOYS AND GIRLS
DERYCK Walker will join seven other emerging young Glasgow fashion designers who are showcasing their work at London Fashion Week with support from the Glasgow: Scotland with style Design Collective, now in its third year.
Members of the Design Collective will feature at catwalk shows as well as within The Exhibition at London Fashion Week, which plays host to over 200 British and International ready-to-wear and accessory designers.
The designers receiving support through the initiative are all either from the Metropolitan Glasgow area, have trained there, or have chosen to be based in the city. They include jewellery, menswear and womenswear designers, all of whom are excelling in their field and are names to watch for the future.
Here we take a look at the young Scottish fashion stars of tomorrow who are promising to make a splash in London this week, with support from the Design Collective.
CHRISTOPHER KANEWhen you can count two of the most powerful women in fashion - designer Donatella Versace and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour - among your biggest fans you know you've really made it. 25-year-old Central St Martins graduate Christopher Kane, who hails from Motherwell, has achieved global recognition for his designs since his debut catwalk show at London Fashion Week in September 2006. His first collection featured bold neon mini-dresses, while his second was more sombre.
AIMEE MCWILLIAMS Since graduating from London's Central Saint Martins in 2004 with a first class BA Honours in fashion womenswear, the work of Aimee McWilliams has appeared in British, Italian, Greek, Russian and Japanese Vogue among other publications. Williams's designs for women are stocked internationally, and she has created pieces for The Rolling Stones for their recent world tour. Her work is flirty, feminine and decadent.
BRAZEN Glasgow jewellery boutique Brazen was set up by Sarah Raffel, who graduated from the Glasgow School Art in 2003 with an honours degree in silversmithing and jewellery. Located in the heart of Glasgow's Merchant City, Brazen showcases jewellery from more than 35 of the most exciting emerging jewellery designers in Britain.
OLANIC Glasgow-based Niki Taylor is a graduate from the Scottish College of Textiles in Galashiels. She has worked as a design consultant for independent skate labels as well as Nike. After previewing a debut mainline collection at the Rendez-Vous new-designer salon in Paris in 2004, Olanic was invited to show at the On/Off Autumn/Winter 2005 schedule at London Fashion Week.
SCOTT RAMSAY KYLE 24-year-old Scott Ramsay Kyle's 2007 graduate show at Central St Martins caught the eye of fashion insiders and editors, who have touted him as one of the names to watch in fashion. A graduate of Glasgow School of Art, his fresh and innovative embroidery designs were featured in Emma Cook's Spring/Summer 2007 collections, and he is working with Boudicca on their Haute Couture collection for Paris Fashion Week.
JAMIE BRUSKI TETSILL After graduating from The Glasgow School of Art in 2005 with a first class BA Honours degree in textiles, 25-year old Jamie Bruski Tetsill went on to graduate earlier this year with an MA in Fashion from Central Saint Martins. He showcased his graduate collection for Autumn/Winter 2007/8 at London Fashion Week in February, which featured structured tailoring in shades of turquoise, emerald, cream and charcoal.
VIDLER & NIXON
Born and raised in Glasgow, Kerry Nixon met Stefan Vidler after graduating from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2001. They designed their first collection for Spring/Summer 2006, and their latest collection for Autumn/Winter 2007/8 is simple and elegant, with a neutral colour palette, and bold lines. Vidler & Nixon's celebrity fans include Sienna Miller, Keira Knightley and Björk.
