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TIMELESS
FINNIES THE JEWELLER
BREAKING BOUNDARIES:
above, Charles Jeffrey, founder of Loverboy menswear collective, is one of the most exciting British designers working today (image courtesy of Thurstan Redding);
right, gender-blurring against a backdrop of amazing sets, part of the Loverboy aesthetic, as seen at London Fashion Week S/S18
a shock which also registered in Kane’s emotional ‘Car Crash’ collection, right after their loss. Christine Kane would not have thought herself anything out of the ordinary, but the talent she quietly nurtured from the family bungalow in Newarthill is extraordinary. How many other house-proud mothers would have tolerated young Christopher and Tammy coming home to make constant messes on the sitting room floor for their art work? Instead of stifling them, Christine Kane, fed up with trying to get glue and glitter out of her carpet, had the front room tiled over, so they could get on with it.
Part of the appreciation of the value of creativity came from the fact that the Kanes’ father was a draughtsman, as well as a pub-owner. But the biggest accelerator was Christopher and Tammy Kane’s access to a fantastic Scottish art education which put the siblings in the place they are today – as it has all the designers mentioned above. By any measure, as England has first instituted university fees and then continually raised them (as well as interest rates on student loans), it is Scottish talent, never selected by wealth or class, and educated undeterred by fees, which is pulling ahead now.
A visit to Newarthill’s community Taylor High School shows why. A dour-looking brutalist hulk from the outside – the copper from the roof was long ago stripped off and never replaced – it has the vibrant energy of an art school from the inside. There's a music lab and a hairdressing salon for school leavers to learn a trade. The art department, when Tammy and Christopher were there, had an inspirational teacher who set textile projects and encouraged Christopher to get on the train and go to life-drawing classes at Glasgow School of Art. It was there, of course, that he was first immersed in the environment and aesthetics of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Jonathan Saunders, five years older than Christopher, had passed through here earlier, studying product design and then switching to print. Saunders, who had been ostracised from his Jehovah’s Witness family for being gay, could never have afforded art college if there had been fees. As it was, he was already off to London to finish his education at Central Saint Martins MA course, where Christopher soon followed him. Tammy, meanwhile, had gone to Galashiels College of Art to study textiles, an incredible course which continues to produce many experts who work behind the scenes in fashion.
Skills as well as imagination count in the fashion industry, and Scottish education produces both excellently. Perhaps that's why, when you open the door of Christopher Kane's pattern and sampling room – hidden way up in the edifice of a red brick Victorian factory in London's Shacklewell Lane – a gale of Scottish accents wafts out. These days, many fashion students graduate unable to sew. You can't say that of the Scottish-educated, and the disciplines take them far.
Scottish entrepreneurship and self-reliance is very much part of it too – the work ethic is taken for granted. When Charles Jeffrey left Glasgow to join the well- trodden road to Central Saint Martins MA class, fees had come in. To pay them, he discovered that the Loverboy club-night he'd started for college friends – so everyone could dress up and dance for an entry fee of £5 – could actually earn him £1,000 a go. Loverboy funded his degree, then post-graduation became a collective, and a collection. Today, Loverboy is exuberantly breaking boundaries, ignoring gender, throwing amazing sets and performances into an arena which was once dominated by the sterile catwalk. In a time of gloom, it's this energy which makes British fashion a beacon of light and creativity admired across continents. But, PS, Scotland and its huge culture of art education should know how much it is contributing to its success.
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