Edward Enninful felt inspired in his mother’s atelier
Edward Enninful has recalled feeling inspired by his mother's work as a seamstress.
Edward Enninful developed his passion for fashion in his mother’s atelier.
The 50-year-old designer felt inspired by his mother's work as a seamstress, and he's taken those lessons into his professional life.
In 'A Visible Man' - an excerpt of which has been published by Vogue - Edward explains: "Her workshop was where I discovered how fashion really works. My mother was discreet with her clients, quiet and shy. She’d show them fabrics and take their measurements and together they’d decide on an idea.
"When her clients came in for their fittings, or when she’d go to their homes, I’d be there, just as silent and serious, to help my mother zip them in. I learned how to fasten a hook and eye without pawing someone and how clothing works technically on a woman’s body.
"I saw from my mother’s example how to talk to women about clothes and work with them to come to new ideas. I learned to recognize the expression on a woman’s face when she turns to look at herself in a new dress and finds what she sees really beautiful. And also how she knows when it’s not quite right."
Edward - who was born in Ghana, before he moved to London as a child - admits that the experience helped to ignite his imagination and his passion for fashion.
The designer wrote: "I was transported by the whole experience of the workshop: the colors, the fabrics, the loving attention of my mother and her staff. It lit up my imagination. I’d sit under my mother’s cutting table, surrounded by scraps of wax fabric, and fill my own notebooks with ladies in elaborate dresses like she did."
