Fashion Futures Brand Feature

Brand Feature – Flik Hall

Fashion Futures talks To Felicity Hall about her brand Flik Hall:

What is the history of Flik Hall? How did it all start?

‘I set up my label in 2009, my first collection was SS10. I started producing my SS10 collection scope of while working at Giles in my evenings. Afterwards I set up in a studio in Hackney Wick and started to make a space that I could use wholly myself. I decided at a young age when I wanted to be a fashion designer that I would at least give it a go on my own before bending to conventions of society and working for a big fashion house. 

Where did your ideas come from for your SS10 collection?

I always felt there was a gap in clothing designed for women that portrays both edginess and femininity. I have always loved prints that make you look twice before you anticipate what they are and this has been something that has become a dominant aesthetic in my work. I felt at the time there wasn’t many designers that had engaged this. I wanted to see how my work was received and if I could make other people as excited by my work as I feel designing it. I am influenced by many things, it changes each season but at the moment I’m looking into aphrodisiacs, exploring imagery of octopus’s and oysters and what impression this has on people.

I am fascinated by cultural identity and how certain happenings influence us in a way that we may not be explicitly aware of.

Who Wears Flik Hall? Does the Brand Portray a Certain Lifestyle?

I very much design for someone that has a lot of conviction and wants to see something new each season. It is important for a customer to know as a designer you are not going to change from ball gowns to bondage; however I think as a new young designer my customer finds it exciting to see me explore different materials and methods as opposed to having my signature set in stone. I think that although it is important to know your market, having enthusiasm for a garment you would love to wear yourself brings about a much stronger piece and naturally draws common threads from season to season. 

The Flik Hall woman is not any particular age or type of person. It is an attitude and aesthetic that is shared no matter what part of the globe she is in and what she does with her day.

What is Special About the Flik Hall Designs?

In my work the use of decorative surfaces is vital and I am constantly endeavoring to create a challenging yet beautiful surface which pushes the boundaries of modern fashion. I like to think I give something slightly other-worldly in the way I combine unnerving but attractive prints with a scope of different textured fabrics.

What were your inspirations for the AW 11 collections?

For Autumn Winter 2011 entitled “The Ghost in the Machine” the collection takes inspiration from problems concerning ‘free will’ and to what extent we are subject to unalterable authority. ‘The ghost in the machine’ is a metaphor asserted by philosopher Gilbert Ryle to denote our consciousness inside our body - the machine. Flik explores how we live our lives within an open space of possibilities, how we deliberate which ones to pursue, and having deliberated, how we choose. She explores how we are evidently conscious of our freedom rather than been robotic Frankenstein creations or slaves to particular programs.

Flik Hall’s mastery with print is evident in an abstracted bird’s eye view of roof tops print, resembling a jeweled sea of graphic lines amongst a bustle of exuberant colour. Another fabric from a distance appears to be beautifully intricate graphic print mimicking the shapes of the collection, on closer inspection it is an obscure brocade made of miniscule woven triangles. A fabric made up of holographic squares is used in panels of particular pieces creating a trompe l’oeil effect which gives the feeling of looking inside a 3 dimensional shape.

Texture plays a key role this season; dresses are finished with extravagant 3-dimensional pyramid foam in Taupe grey, steel and cerulean blues whilst patent and metallic leathers in different shades contour the body. The shapes and prints illustrate what it might be for another being or mass looking ‘bird’s eye’ into our world. The foam representing rooftops of houses, both man made and mass produced. This takes its cue from Flik’s central theme – what from the past controls the present and the future how much we are influenced by a hyper-reality. The person wearing my clothes has a lot of conviction and marches to her own drum.

To find out more about the Flik Hall brand visit the Website
http://www.flikhall.com/

Or Check out the Blog
http://flikhall.blogspot.com/