Paris Hawkins-Carr: Fresh New Designer Alert.

As we promised we planned to track down the brilliant designer Paris Hawkins Carr. Here at Aesthetically Ever After we did just that! We had the pleasure of viewing her designs at the wonderful Graduate Fashion Week Event in London and just wanted to share with you all a star in the making...

Paris was born in December 1989 in Essex. She attended the Southend School for Girls for her secondary education and her A-levels.

After finishing her A-levels, Paris secured a place at Birmingham University to study Fashion Design. During her time here she undertook a work placement at Todd Lynn where she gained a priceless insight into the fashion industry.

Through perseverance and hard work, Paris was lucky enough to design six outfits, make three of them and have a panel of judges decide on whether she would be aable to showcaes at GFW 2011. She found herself in the final 12 of 46 students who were give this fabulous opportunity.

This is what Paris had to say when we caught up with her...

AEA: Do you feel your formal fashion education at Birmingham University helped prepare you for working in the industry?

PHC: Definitely. To be a good designer I believe you need to be able to make what you want to design to know that what you are putting down on paper is realistic. In that sense the technicality of pattern cutting and sewing you need to be taught. But also being poked in the right direction design wise by tutors is always helpful.

AEA: If you weren’t a designer what would you be?

PHC: I originally geared my A levels up to be a doctor. To be honest I would still love to pursue that career if the fashion industry did not work out!

AEA:What one piece of advice would you give to someone wanting to start a career in fashion?

PHC: I think you need to live, breathe and eat fashion, and certainly know what part of fashion you want to go into. Styling, retail management, design or garment technology for example. Design is a massive undertaking and so you need to know that that is what you are interested in before pursuing it as a career. There are a lot of people that realise they prefer the management side of fashion like buying, merchandising etc so my advice is research thoroughly first and maybe try and get some experience.

AEA: Where do you get your design inspiration?

PHC: I get it from anything and everything. As a designer I take inspiration from art, music and general popular culture and interpret it into clothing. I am most interested in people’s reaction to things that happen. My most recent inspiration was from the idea of death being about more the emotions of the living and the coping mechanisms when dealing with death. It went on to explore the idea that when a person is laid to rest their soul can be seen in transition between life and death in the form of the bird. Thus I literally showed the birds ripping away from the body.

AEA:What is the best perk in being a designer?

PHC: The most rewarding thing about being a designer, at this stage, is seeing my work in the catwalk in front of an audience. I have worked 8am-8pm for at least six months on my final collection and to see it out there being received by people and sparking a reaction is so amazing!

AEA: What is the most difficult aspect of running your own label versus i.e. design, production, sales, finance and advertising?

PHC: To be honest, on a personal level I would not know. My next step is, to hopefully, get a job in large high end designers and learn the different aspects of running a label. I did a placement with a designer called Todd Lynn over the summer and it was really interesting seeing his different challenges as a small up and coming label. I think with any business the financial side of things is extremely difficult, as a designer designing comes naturally but to confine that with money restrictions and to publicise and get the right amount of sales is extremely difficult and is probably why fashion is such a hard industry.

AEA: What do you wish people would understand about working in the fashion industry?

PHC: I think when I say I do fashion people think that I just go to fun parties. That’s really not the case I think the only reason people get that impression is that designers have to work so hard that when they do party they part hard!

AEA: What trends do you see being big for 2011 and 2012?

PHC: I’m not sure to be honest. As a designer I work in my own little bubble and present my designs to the world I don’t really manage to keep an eye on trends.

AEA: Who is your style icon?

PHC: Erm…. I don’t really know to be honest. I love Alexa Chung’s style but I love looking on blogs like face hunter for cool style ideas.

AEA: Where do you love to shop?

PHC: I do like Topshop however I like to mix it with vintage and second hand stuff. There is an amazing £2 stall in Birmingham Rag Market that sells the coolest stuff.

AEA: What your favourite item of clothing?

PHC: This jacket my boyfriends mum gave me from the 80’s.

AEA: What’s your mantra?

PHC: Fuck it. What will happen will happen.

AEA: What’s next for Paris Hawkins-Carr?

PHC: Hopefully move to London. Live the dream. Work for a high end fashion label.

We believe that this bright young star is going to be reaching unbelieveable heights in her fashion career. She speaks with passion, integrity and desire. Remember where you heard about her first.

To see more of Paris Hawkins-Carr you can go to http://parishawkins.blogspot.com/

It's all about the fashion, love AEA x x