Dressed for success
OS magazine, April 2006
Lydia Crawford tells Cath Janes why fashion really is as fabulous as it sounds
By the time you read this Lydia Crawford, administrator for the Centre for Fashion Enterprise will fresh from Paris Fashion Week. London Fashion Week, where she was a familiar face, will be a distant memory and she’ll be working with the Centre’s designers on their forthcoming collections. And when she isn’t visiting design studios, networking with industry peers or bumping into American Vogue’s Anna Wintour Lydia will be enjoying every other aspect of the role which was shaped to suit her experience and ambitions. Jealous yet?
Since joining the team at the Centre for Fashion Enterprise, based at the London College of Fashion, a year ago Lydia has led the sort of life that most of us dream about. The Centre was opened to improve the success rate of new designers by helping them develop their collections, build contacts, plan their businesses and find potential investors. There are twelve designers on the books which means Lydia has to service the equivalent of twelve companies. But apart from covering all the practicalities it is also her job to help the designers’ dreams come true.
Passion for fashion
Before joining the Centre a year ago Australian born Lydia worked in fashion PR and organic textiles. She’s now been in the country for three years and already looks like she has found her niche.
“It’s a role that motivates and inspires me,” she says. “I’m passionate about fashion and love communicating with people and this jobs means that I can do both of those things. The glamour is what drew me in at the beginning but it is working with the creative personalities that keeps me here.”
It’s not surprising. Lydia’s role as administrator means that she is the liaison between the Centre and its designers. Apart from the usual tasks of answering emails and chasing invoices Lydia works closely with the designers, getting them the help and support that they need to make a splash as well as guiding them through the fraught work of fashion mixed with business.
“I do a lot of hand holding in this job,” she explains. “I try to guide designers through the stressful periods and help them keep a steady head while I do what I can to help. They could be having a terrible time but it’s my job to help them chill. It doesn’t always work though. I have been known to get stress by proxy too!”
It’s lucky, then, that Lydia describes herself as patient. She has to be. As the first stop for anyone contacting the Centre Lydia is also the liaison for Linda Peters, the centre’s co-founder and director. It means that, fashion weeks aside, Lydia rarely get a chance to stand still, as she explains.
“It’s hard to describe a typical day here because every day is so different. At the most basic level I look after the administrative side of the centre which means I field calls or respond to the many emails that we get through our website. These come in from all over the world and vary from the vacuous to the truly interesting. I also spend time looking at the financials every day, working with budgets and invoices. Our funds go through the university so I spend a lot of time in contact with the college.”
On the move
In the average week Lydia will find herself in several meetings as well as travelling from her Oxford Circus based office to the designers’ studios in Hackney. It’s a chance for her to see them in action. Luckily, by the time you read this she’d also have relocated to the Hackney studios, a move that will make her work, and that of the designers, significantly easier.
“I have an independent role because Linda decided that she didn’t need a PA as much as she’d anticipated,” says Lydia. “It means that I can work from Hackney while she takes care of the business side of things in the city. When I move I’ll be doors away from the designers so they can pop in whenever they like rather than have to rely on making phone calls when they need something.”
And one of the perks of the move will be that when the fashion weeks come around again it’ll make life a little less hectic than it already is. Lydia explains that February through to September is when things are at their busiest. But it all really kicks off with London Fashion Week and it’s obvious that Lydia loves it.
“This year it went really well,” she says. “We had four designers in the show and one of them was making their debut. It meant that I helped them prepare for the week and I worked especially closely with one designer who was showing solo.
“The week before was crazy behaviour though. Everyone was buzzing about and all of our designers held castings too so there was a lot of work to do. That’s why I take a few days off work and do things that are completely unrelated to fashion in the week after the show. Then when I am refreshed it is back to work to prepare for Paris.”
Girl on top
This year Lydia will spend two days at the Paris Fashion Show, doing even more mingling than she did in London. That’s because Paris is the show that attracts international buyers, giving Lydia an even better chance of meeting the people in the know.
It takes organisation though. A lot of it. Lydia works hard to stay on top of all her obligations and responsibilities and to do that she resorts to the old favourite, the list.
“I make a list every morning and every afternoon. I’m always scribbling in my diary too. I also constantly go over my emails, both the in-box and the out! That’s because I am checking to see if I have missed anything important or forgotten to do something that I have promised. I don’t have anything like a Blackberry to keep me on top of things so this if how I keep up.”
But once she has been prised away from her lists it’s a chance to let her hair down. Lydia admits that there are a lot of parties and events to attend and that clinking champagne glasses goes with the territory. For her it is all about networking and making sure that the Centre’s designers get the best chance of success. Lydia also makes a point of wearing pieces from the collections of the Centre’s designers just to support them in their efforts. It’s clear that for Lydia this is more than just a job - it’s a way of life.
Yet what she really loves is seeing the outcome of not just her own work but that of the designers too.
“It’s what drives me,” she says. “When I go to a show and I look at a model wearing the creations of our designers what I really see is the talent, time and energy that has gone into it. It’s the same when I read about one of our designers in a glossy magazine or a newspaper. I feel that because I was there when it was happening I can be a little part of that success too.”