Upon discovering Amanda Harrisson’s work, I knew I hit a gem! The PatternBase encounters tons of work from many designers, but Amanda’s stood out with its emphasis on bold, large scale portrait illustrations, and embroidery. We are very inspired by work that requires such attention to detail, hundreds of hours of work, and several pens.
Amanda Harrisson is a Central Saint Martins fashion print graduate. She has interned for Balmain, Viktor & Rolf, John Galliano, Mary Katrantzou, Gareth Pugh, Alexander McQueen, Bruce Oldfield, Zandra Rhodes, and Liberty of London. She has won the Liberty of London award, and soon after her design was printed on their fabric, it was sold out. She has been featured on ITV news, BBC radio, and Vogue Italia. At 23, she has already had commissions from companies and private clients worldwide.
In this interview Amanda goes in depth about her latest collection, and all those ornate and beautiful things which inspire her designs.
PB: Your designs are gorgeous. Please explain (at any length!) where your inspiration comes from.
AH: Thank you. My inspiration for my collection ‘Beautiful People’ came from looking at Renaissance paintings and religious iconography of Northern European art. Through my own experimentation I started to illustrate Renaissance nudes in a contemporary context. From there I reversed this idea, and started to create my own ‘Old Master-eque’ portraits of my own contemporary icons. The portraits I illustrated were embedded within lace, jewels, and diamonds. I wanted to draw the most opulent modern portraits I could find.
Outside of the portraits, I illustrated delicate Swedish lace and lace inspired by Damask wallpaper. I drew contemporary diamonds such as the Cullinan Diamond and the diamond on Damien Hirst’s ‘For the Love of God’, and combined these details with laser sparkling fabric and Swarovski crystals to gain a sense of opulence.
PB: It’s clear that you have great ambition and have had a lot of amazing career related experiences with nine internships. What is something interesting that happened to you while you gathered these experiences? How has it directed you into the future? (By interesting, I mean either shocking, inspiring, or positive. However you want to take it!)
AH: I really enjoyed doing all of the internships, and I think for me doing so many whilst at university was a positive thing because I came out of university knowing which sort of house I would like to work for, and also it enabled me to develop my portfolio dramatically. Even upon graduation over 20 of my prints were transferred into collections/pre-collections for various designers, which was very encouraging. From my internships I realised how much I enjoyed working overseas. When I was at Balmain, John Galliano, and Viktor & Rolf I felt like the experience was very new and exciting because of being in a different country with a different culture.
PB: What does your studio look like?
AH: I have moved out of it since starting work as a freelancer, however whilst there it was very compact but practical. I had research boards all round the room, a heat press, and sewing machines. I spent my Sundays and evenings working in my studio at home, but Monday – Saturday in the St Martins studios, which were very big open plan studios full of students and mannequins, as well as a print room, which had all of the screen printing/heat press facilities.
PB: How do you support yourself as a designer?
AH: At the moment I manage to support myself through freelancing for various brands. I have been working for luxury brands as a freelance embroidery designer and a production assistant at Bruce Oldfield and Tom Ford. I have also worked freelance as a print designer for more commercial brands and print studios since graduating.
PB: Have you always wanted to be a designer, or was your route less linear and more complicated?
AH: I am one of those people who wants to do everything, so choosing a career was always confusing earlier on in life. I suppose this is part of the reason why I studied two degrees simultaneously. Even at school I did 17 GCSE’s as I wanted to do them all. One week I wanted to be a pilot, then a nano-technologist, and then the next week a designer. I have always had a massive interest in the arts, and drawn prolifically since a young age. I did a lot of graphic design whilst growing up for various clients. I have been using Adobe Photoshop since 13, and with 11 years experience, I am luckily quite a master of the software. Print and textiles was the perfect pathway to enable me to combine my interest in drawing and painting, with Adobe Photoshop.
PB: What are your favorite materials?
AH: For me it depends on the garment or the collection. As I am currently freelancing as an embroidery designer, I am surrounded by beautiful silks and chiffons which I really love, and think they work beautifully in evening wear. For my own collection I used quite strong and structural fabrics which I really enjoyed working with. The fabrics included Alcantara, and this tough industrial shimmering fabric used in set designs which I laser cut to make it softer and wearable.
PB: I know that you love a black and white color palette. Any other palettes you enjoy?
AH: I really love all colour palettes, but for my collection to keep the hand drawn element authentic I decided to keep it black and white. I kept developing coloured prints throughout the collection, and putting them aside the drawings and it started to detract from what I spent so long drawing. My favourite colour is red, and I really love the combination of red and gold.
PB: What are some inspirational designers and artists you love?
AH: My favourite brands include Givenchy, Dolce & Gabanna, Balmain, Valentino, Prada, and so many more. One of my favourite artists/textiles designers is William Morris as I am really intrigued by his interesting use of repeat tiles. I am very much inspired by ornate architecture, and I love ornaments and the decorative arts. I also really love historical religious paintings, and byzantine art.
PB: What is your personal style like? How does your own style inspire (or not!) your designs?
AH: I would say my personal style is very much about attention to detail. I love very intricate work, whether intricate paintings or drawings, or beadwork as well. My work is very much based on this attention to detail, and I believe having strong hand drawing and painting skills enables me to interpret fine details in a realistic and sometimes photorealistic style
PB: Describe the fusion between your chemistry and design degree.
AH: The fusion of the two really enabled me to understand fabrics better, especially smart textiles which I am very interested in. My degree defiantly influenced my choice of fabrics, by making me consider more industrial fabrics. The degree however proved to be mostly beneficial to my dissertation, where I merged the two.
PB: Your hand drawn designs are amazing. What was your process like for those?
AH: Thank you. The drawings were very intricate and took along time, some over 300 hours each. The drawings were always done in black pen, and because I was interested in photo-realism I drew the portraits from scratch whilst looking at the original reference/photograph. There is a lot of debate about the worth, and point of photorealism and this was something I also wanted to address with my collection. Although my drawing style for the portraits is photo-realistic, it also has a one-directional motion, which is a technique I have developed for shading. In terms of the drawings of the diamonds and lace, these were again drawn freehand and I drew this massive print encrusted with lace and diamonds that took about two weeks and 30 pens.
PB: What are some exciting plans for your career in the future?
AH: Since graduating I have been freelancing for many luxury brands as a freelance embroidery designer, which I am really enjoying. I worked with Milaaya embroideries on my final collection, sending my technical drawings off to Milaaya and receiving back beautiful embroidery really sparked my love for embroidery design, so I feel very lucky to be able to have the flexibility to alternate between print and embroidery. I have also worked as a freelance print designer for more commercial brands and print studios as well. In terms of the future, I have a full time job that I am about to start in the New Year overseas which I am very excited for!
For more information about Amanda Harrisson, and more photos of her collection, visit www.amandaharrisson.com.
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