Last September, Northern Irish fashion designer Sharon Wauchob showcased her SS20 collection in St Cyprian’s Church in Marylebone. Inside the ornate setting, international press and buyers gathered for what turned out to be a highlight of London Fashion Week. The gender-fluid collection, modelled by a cross-generational line up weaved through the pews in sheer shirting, reimagined trench coats and ultra-feminine hand-dyed silk fringing that transcended conventional modes of masculine and feminine.

Wauchob’s vision was to ‘“reimagine luxury for a less formal setting”. Fast forward to summer 2020 and you couldn’t get a less formal setting than a global lockdown. It’s safe to say the Tyrone-born designer hit the sartorial nail on the head. Far from a Mystic Meg prediction, Wauchob was simply building on what she does best, focusing on great design. Her work juxtaposes soft and strong elements, allowing men and women to incorporate both. She makes “dresses for girls who don’t like to wear dresses”.

Born and raised in Baronscourt, a small border town between Omagh and Strabane, Wauchob pursued fashion as soon as she “knew it existed”. She left Tyrone to attend London’s prestigious art and design college Central Saint Martins. “I was lucky because my father was quite artistic in terms of music and he hadn’t been allowed to do it so there was an immediate reaction to go for it, but it was also made pretty clear to me that I had to really work at it, but I was allowed to go for it, and I appreciate that.”

While the pivot from farming to fashion sounds more like a plot line in a Reese Witherspoon movie the hard work, long hours and double jobbing would prove formative training for what was to come. Wauchob graduated from Central Saint Martins with first class honours in 1993.

“I think there’s a benefit to getting a start in a small business because you touch upon everything.”

After her final college show, a representative for the Japanese designer Koji Tatsuno called her family home with a job offer. “I’ve no idea how they got my number back then”. She went to work for the label in Paris. “I think there’s a benefit to getting a start in a small business because you touch upon everything.”

From there, she joined Louis Vuitton as bag designer from 1997 to 2001. Wauchob worked under Yves Carcelle, the chairman and chief executive officer who transformed Louis Vuitton into a luxury fashion powerhouse, hiring Marc Jacobs as creative director and spearheading the business’s global expansion. While there, she started her own eponymous label with her partner (in business and in life) Joshua Neville. “I actually did both, I worked full time at Vuitton and did my own collection. Carcelle knew and he was really supportive. I thought it’s probably better for everyone I stop [working with Vuitton] now and do this little project I’d started and he was like ‘why?’ And that’s how I learned to do two things at once.”

In 2009, Wauchob was appointed creative director of Edun, the LVMH-backed label founded by Ali Hewson and Bono to promote production in Africa. It was a label that was, in many ways, ahead of its time. “Ali’s idea then is what everyone is talking about now. Sometimes it’s not easy being the first. Or one of the first. I did that while working on my own label, and pregnant, which is always good to throw in the mix. I had two children at that point. It was a very creative moment for me.”

From 2009 to 2013, Wauchob produced two womenswear collections per year plus menswear for New York-based Edun, plus two collections for her own label back in Paris. It’s a lot by anyone’s standards. But the fashion show schedule has never been for the fainthearted and recently it has reached boiling point with calls for change.

A time of reflection in an age of crisis

The onset of Covid-19 has forced the industry into a period of reflection with questions being raised about consumption and the number of shows held each season. London Fashion Week, historically a quarterly event divided into men’s and women’s weeks, will now merge into a gender neutral digital format. Industry predictions suggest that the change to schedules, which are so reliant on freelance workers means the fashion industry is in danger of losing half its workforce by the end of 2020.

“I think the British Fashion Council are being proactive. I’ve been talking with them and they’re doing the right thing because designers do have to have a presence. They are looking quite realistically at what can be done. I think if it’s done well it can work. The goal will be to mix it in with real shows again, but at this point that’s not possible. I’ve always loved the idea of doing something more intimate. I think there’s maybe something in that, but how that can be structured logistically is going to be the tricky bit while people still can’t travel,” she says.

“We’re faced with a dilemma because we’re always looking for something new, and the industry is desperately trying to say fashion shows are finished, but it’s very hard to find something better than a girl wearing clothes physically in front of you, so we have to work around that a little bit and find ways maybe short-term. Ultimately I think it’s still important to see the real product.”

Saint Laurent recently announced its intention to reshape its schedule for showing collections for the rest of the year in a break with the conventional fashion calendar, something Wauchob has been doing for the past two years. She’s been combining womenswear and mens and alternating fashion shows with a presentation. The change in direction followed the brand’s move from Paris to London.

“You’re allowed to do that now, but before it was impossible and we were showing twice a year religiously, no matter what. It gives you great options, but obviously now that’s disrupted [further] so we’re looking at alternative mediums and working with different teams to mix music and film and to see what’s possible.”

“Maybe that’s something that will come out of this is that experience will have a louder voice.”

Although fashion has long been seen as a youth-focussed industry, Wauchob believes strongly in a multi-generational workforce, both on and off the catwalk. “I don’t think we talk about that enough in the industry. Fashion appears very young and I think that’s a mistake, it should be both. I think it is both, but we kind of pretend it’s not. Youth have a certain role in the industry and that’s to bring something new to the picture, but I think there are different roles now and sometimes you have to bring in the experience. I think you should never lose thinking outside the box. I think that’s important always. I know a lot of very experienced people who are far better at thinking outside the box than younger people, but maybe that’s something that will come out of this is that experience will have a louder voice.”

Offshoring, sustainability and sincerity

The Savigny Luxury Index (“SLI”) ended May almost 6% up, indicating early recovery signs in the sector on the back of evidence of post-Covid-19 recovery in China and the gradual easing of lockdown measures in Europe and the USA. However, the full impact of coronavirus However, the full impact of coronavirus will be felt in the second quarter. For now, Wauchob’s greatest concern is for her team – the people behind her brand and the craftspeople she collaborates with.

“Ultimately, if we don’t work quickly enough, one of the biggest problems is going to be keeping the people who make the product. To keep that lifeline because if that’s disrupted beyond repair it’s massively problematic. A lot of those key factories or crafts have been built up historically, so you can’t just turn them on and off. Whether it’s a certain leather manufacturer, embroiderer, pleater, there are key people in there teaching the next generation to do it. If those factories are closed, it’s very difficult to see how that can be replaced. Looking at the manufacturing, I hope people know what they’re doing and are protecting their workforce.”

“I’m always hopeful when I’m starting a new collection. I know it’s a really basic instinct, but that’s the only reason to keep doing this, right?”

The current crisis has also highlighted the need for sustainability more than ever before. For Wauchob it’s long been part of her brand’s DNA. “I was more interested in talking about it when no one was talking about it, and now everyone is talking about it. For me it’s just obvious. When you want to produce good product you have to be on site, you have to be there.

“So either you travel or you set it up around you and if it’s around you, why not use what’s around you. To me, it was always common sense. I’ve done the sums and I’ve worked out the alternative and it always comes back to this: In the luxury market and at that scale of production, the numbers don’t even make sense, so why there was this obsession with offshore?” she says.

“Now they’re calling it sustainable to not do it, well, it’s also common sense to not do it that way. In France, we were doing certain things, because of the French skillset and when we came to England, there’s another skillset so I looked into Saville Row, and tailoring, and then wanted to retain what we had been working on in Paris, which was more the feminine and French lace and to mix them together.”

In general, Wauchob remains hopeful for the future of her sector. “I’m always hopeful when I’m starting a new collection. I know it’s a really basic instinct, but that’s the only reason to keep doing this, right?

“Staying sincere is always the biggest challenge. The luxury industry can get a little too clever for its own good and the brands that stay sincere and away from the noise seem to have a better longevity, and a better business. We have to just really knuckle down and really perfect the product. It’s fine to talk about alternative ways of reaching the customer, but at the end of the day you have to have a product that speaks to the customer when they get it so I think that’s going to be really important.”