I think Ive mentioned many times before my admiration for Erdem, so imagine how excited i was to hear he would be coming to my university for a talk with the students?! So, today was the day. A packed auditorium waited in anticipation for him to arrive, and im so glad to say i was not disappointed by him at all. In fact the poor guy looked positively terrified as he walked through the door to find 50 odd faces staring back at him. But he was lovely, and answered all questions - asked by the third year student interviewing him, and by us in the audience - with long, detailed answers. Dressed in chinos, a shirt and cardigan, he describes his style as "quite boring, conservative and geeky." But i think that's what makes him so interesting - he would much rather praise other people and talk about his appreciation for those around him than say anything positive about himself, in such a respect. Even though his designs are outstandingly beautiful and saw him win the Vogue's designer fashion fund, he would never 'big himself up', instead saying "I'm still surprised by winning the Vogue fashion fun - its a wonderful thing."
The thing i love most about Erdem's designs is the floral prints that are continuous throughout his collections, "I'm very interested in digital print, it's something i am fascinated by and that i love." But, to be quite honest i hadn't ever given much thought into how much goes into the initial design process of the prints. He makes each and every one, but scanning in photos on photo-shop, and manipulating them in various ways through watercolour effects, smudges...all sorts.
Something that struck me most about Erdem was his modesty, and his great appreciation for everything that has happened to him through his career "it happened very quickly" he said of how he started out with his business, "i was very lucky". It was phrases like this that pretty much made up the entire interview "its wonderful", "i love what i do, i enjoy it, i couldn't do anything else", "I'd love to have a shop one day, but if i am where i am now, I'd be very happy."
Other little facts about Erdem that you may not know about...
He would love to dress Tilda Swinton, describing her as an "odd beauty"
He won't be branching out into menswear, saying it would be fairly difficult to translate his design aesthetic into men's clothing.
He has a British mother and a Turkish father.
He loves random inspiration and his favourite museum is the Tate Modern, "its a great place to have lunch" he said.
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to what he had to say and it was great to see the man behind the label that i adore - without that sounding insanely cheesy...
The talk was filmed so i will post it up when it's available.
