Q Tell us a bit about your fashion background…

Ismail: I studied fashion design at London College of Fashion from 1995 to 1999 and completed my BA Honours in fashion womenswear at Central Saint Martins in 2002. I soon began working as a freelance designer and creative pattern cutter. I have only just begun to establish my product and style so achievements are yet to come. I have experimented a lot and feel the need to produce now.

Ismail Erbil's Urban Nymph story

Q Fashion is a notoriously difficult industry to crack – what keeps you focused?

Ismail: What keeps me focused is my knowledge of other markets in fashion and my ability not to fall into other fashion areas that don’t really interest me. Once you know your product and customers this gives you a certain confidence to achieve more. Fashion is a very competitive and fast industry. I don’t produce trend driven clothes but l am always in search of unusual textiles especially from my native country Turkey. I believe in my total vision; concepts realised in the design process.

Urban Nymph

Q Tell us a bit about your latest collection - Urban Nymph…

Ismail: Urban Nymph is the title of my recent collection and the inspiration comes from trips made into the Australian rainforests in 2004. I wanted to see how these experiences could be adapted towards a more urban city bohemian feel in terms of clothes. It’s about hard versus soft.

The collection brings together two methods of working. Free flowing draping and creative fabric manipulation is juxtaposed with a more structured look of sharp lines, panelling and pattern cutting. I saw this collection as a colour project to energise my designs. I experimented with a natural colour palette of greens on the one hand with a more synthetic sense of colour which includes silver, emerald greens and fluorescent yellow on the other.

The tension and energy I created exists in the hybrid patterns and forms that I seek out in the design process whereby boundaries between elements become blurred; the built environment and natural structures intertwine giving rise to an urban-nymph sensibility.

Urban Nymph illustrations

Q Do you have a particular female in mind when designing?

Ismail: The ideal muse I have in mind when designing is someone who is body conscious, feminine and independent. I like women who are playful yet mature.

Urban Nymph behind the scenes

 
Q You created a really striking shoot for Urban Nymph (featured) with photographer Tony Monckton – how do you guys know each other and talk us through how you came up with the shoot concept…

Ismail: Thanks! I met Tony through a fashion stylist and things just developed from there really. I allowed the clothes to do the talking and didn’t really have to try hard to come up with a concept for the shoot.

Behind the scenes

Tony Monckton adds: “The shoot had lots of energy, personally I loved the shoot very much and the team. It seemed to just flow along very smoothly. Mia was great on the shoot, and she instantly got into the character 'Urban Nymph'. I loved the last outfit, which featured white strips on top of a green under garment. It really shows off a woman's figure.” 

I was very excited to meet Mia, the model, and the team, everyone was very professional.

Behind the scenes with model Mia

Q Will you and Tony be working on future projects together?

Ismail: I am currently in discussion with Tony about my new exciting project I am doing for a fine art sculpture exhibition called Flux in Hackney Wick. I love Tony’s vision of how he captures beauty in his photography and it would be interesting to see how he might picture a sculpture that questions the body. It’s not a fashion shoot but rather a focus on how our bodies take up space.

 
Q What next for your collection, Jenny Holloway mentioned the possibility of New York in September?

Ismail: I am developing a small range of beautiful eveningwear taking elements from the ‘Urban Nymph’ collection and aiming at women who want to wear special clothes with personal touches.  I’m totally excited with the possibility of taking the ‘Urban Nymph’ collection to New York and meeting interesting people who may want to hire me as a freelance designer.

Q Would you ever consider developing a range for another market sector, say menswear for example?

Ismail: Yes, I’d love to do menswear one day!

Q I hear you also dabble in other areas of fashion, teaching for example, tells us a bit about that…

Ismail: I teach fashion illustration and figure drawing in various colleges and feel totally comfortable helping students who want to learn from me. I have also been back to Central Saint Martins and London College of Fashion to teach illustration/design at different levels and this was a very rewarding experience since I was a student myself at these colleges some time ago!  Teaching pays the bills and I get really excited seeing my students develop and learn how to draw properly.

Q Are there any designers/artists that you particularly admire?

Ismail: I admire Andre Courreges for his vision of future fashion and Pierre Cardin for his couture finishes.

Q What are the best and worst aspects of working in fashion so far?

Ismail: The best part of my trade is the freedom clothes allow for expression and constantly learning through mistakes. The bad bits are the deadlines i.e.: production or sampling.

 
Q Fashion faux-pas – what are your style pet hates?

Ismail: People who overdose on designer labels and have too many brand names flashing about.

Q Current stockists…  

Ismail: Currently I’m building up an online boutique with FashionCapital and soon will be able to share my creations with everyone; you could get hold of some very exciting designs from me! I also stock at Fashion Enter LTD.

Q Ismail quote of the day...

Ismail: “Be yourself and create!”

Company name: Ismail Erbil,

Address: Unit B,

First Floor Building No: 2,

92 White Post Lane,

Hackney Wick,

London E9 5EN

Telephone: +44 (0)7828 288971

E-mail:  

Website: Under construction

Images by Tony Monckton

www.tonymonckton.com

 

Interview by JoJo Iles