I wake up at 7.30am go downstairs and prepare a black coffee and a green smoothie (spirulina, maca powder, banana, cacao, wheatgrass and spinach). That’s breakfast. I go back upstairs and spend a little time writing in my notebook and reading with my coffee and letting myself wake up, letting thoughts come. I refuse to skip this step. It plants me in the right mood for the day. I do some exercise before getting dressed and run out the door with bags in hand and make for the Westwood design studio where I work Monday - Friday.
Work begins, today we are choosing which fabrics to apply for our SS22 collection. I took part in some sustainability workshops with the Ellen MacArthur foundation last week, so I’m trying to think in terms of our circular design principles when making these decisions. I love choosing colours for the lab dips too, it’s like animating the whole thing from something flat and colouring it to life. I raid the Pantone book and find a familiar classic ‘plum kitten’ - everybody laughs. But this is a summer collection so let’s chose something lighter. I go for a bitter lemon sorbet colour and happy with that, move onto the next thing.
After lunch we do a fitting (in person - thank god, remote zoom fittings were awful). I think I’ve seen this proto three times, still not right. It’s a dress I love from the archive - reworked. I know it well, so I make sure I have my say. Some garments become quite personal - you get attached and know what to do with them, what the perfect fabric is, just how it needs to be.
Coffee! I see that Julian has sent through the next version of a demo we’ve been working on this week. Can’t wait to get home to lay down a banging vocal on this. Sounds alive, this one!
I get in the door, throw everything down, offload my baggage and start to cook dinner. I make smashed cucumber and sesame salad with a dressing (my favourite part) of sesame oil, vinegar, chilli flakes, salt, soy sauce. I have an heirloom tomato salad from yesterday, which completes my plate. Looks like someone else made it. That makes me happy.
I light some incense in my room - the label reads ‘cement, smoke, wood’. Intriguing.
12:00AM
My last thought before sleep is about which jacket I will wear tomorrow and how it will make me feel. I choose the leather lapel and covered buttons.
Sinead O’Brien’s single ‘Kid Stuff’ is out now.











