With an upbringing split between Galway and Hong Kong, Zoë Carol marries cultural and geographical influences with her sophisticated eye for design, creating distinctive yet collected clothing for the woman who takes-no-prisoners.
How did you start out in fashion?
I graduated from Trinity College, doing a science degree with a geography major, and as much as I did love geography and researching human geography and environments and how people live, it just didn’t love me back. My grades were alright but no matter how much I tried at it, it just wasn’t my thing, so I started looking into summer programmes at the London College of Fashion and I just decided that I was going to work in a bar or wherever and save up and do these courses, that I’m going to make my own way. My dad just really wasn’t having it and thought I was messing about and I needed to take a direction in my life, so he insisted that if that’s what I really wanted to do I could pick a college and he would help me go to it. Unfortunately for him I did get in to fashion college and I got in to the best, and probably the most expensive one! I remember the day I got the acceptance letter from Parsons School of Design in New York – I screamed, cried, and danced around in my kitchen!
I guess I really wanted to do fashion from a very young age, I used to help my Mum sew the curtains and napkins and tablecloths for our restaurant, and use the scraps of fabric to make scrunchies – as it was the ’90s! – and little elastic skirts and things. I learned how to use the sewing machine from a very young age and I was obsessed with those ‘Get-set’ t-shirt printing, knitting, and bead kits. But Parsons really kicked me up a gear, teaching me how to design and construct.
How long were you in New York?
Three years in total, the course was a year and a half long and I was also working and interning the whole time. When I finished the course, I was offered a job as creative director with Libra Leather, and unfortunately nearly as soon as I got the job it was gone due to the big financial crash. I then started working as a menswear designer which I stuck out for the summer, but that was a really inhospitable environment. Luckily I then was offered a job working as a shoe designer and that was a really incredible experience, not something that I had prepared myself for, but I just hit the ground running and learned a lot. I had only done one class of shoe design and this company was stocked in Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s so it was pretty daunting, but the team were so great and within a week I had learned to design shoes in a commercial setting. It was really cool. They worked us hard, really hard, but that’s just the nature of the working environment in New York. So by the time I had left, I had experience in knitwear design, footwear design, men’s suiting and leather goods. It was a lot in those three years.
Did you have any style icons growing up?
I loved Linda Gray from Dallas! [laughs] I *loved* her! I loved her sass, I loved her ‘take no shit’ attitude to life and men and business. From a very young age my Mum and I would sit together and watch Dallas and Fashion Television with Jeanne Beker. I would never miss it – every week for basically the entirety of the mid ’90s. I was really into fashion from a young age and I would tear apart my Mum’s wardrobe to play ‘dressing up’ blasting out Kylie Minogue and Madonna from the radio!
How would you define your label?
It’s certainly grown and gone its own direction in the last three years, but I think that since it started the one thing that hasn’t changed it the sense of sophistication and its ability to communicate [the image of] a really educated and independent woman. That’s what I really love about it, I find that it attracts really self-assured women, the kind that knows exactly what they want in life, and I love designing for them. Of course there’s always my twist, a little quirk in detail, and the fabrications and trims are thought out with that specific woman in mind, and I really enjoy that.
Could you tell us a bit about your collection for AW15?
A lot of my collections are based on people and environmental situations, so this season I was really looking into the Spanish Civil War, which is kind of a strange topic but Life Magazine have a really amazing archive of black and white imagery, and the shots where just really down to earth and spoke of people who worked really hard and were fighting for something. So I looked into Spanish culture, and in those images you could see women working in the fields and children going to school, and they had these beautiful colours and great bowties and the woman had these big workable gathered skirts. Expanding on that, I looked into the costumes of the matador and I learned a lot about bullfighting.
It’s not a sport I support in any way but I was really attracted to how this particular matador dressed for his fights. He’s one of the most famous in Spain, and he had this ritual when getting dressed, the costumes are so complicated with all these buttons and bells and the fabric alone is so beautiful, so I wanted to use a really striking brocade that wasn’t too ornate but pushed the boundary from what I would normally do. I always like to bring in a feminine element and that was with the flamenco dancer, but not in an obvious way, so I brought in some subtle ruffles, and a dark but sexy red. I wear this red lipstick that people always comment on, there is a certain tone of red that evokes Spanish romance.
Zoë Carol is stocked at Style Ikon, 18a The Crescent, Monkstown, Co. Dublin, and also takes bespoke orders through info@zoecarol.com from her design studio in Dublin 8. For more see www.zoecarol.com
Model: Ellen at Distinct Model Management
Stylist: Brian Conway
Set Art Director: Shane Kenna at Oh Hi Friend
Hair: Maricia Horan at Davey Davey
Make-up: Blue Evans
Words: Honor Fitzsimons
Photos: Aaron Hurley
