Camille (left) is awarded Most Stylish Boutique at the Scottish Style Awards
Glasgow has always been a stylish city but thanks to the work of Camille Lorigo, founder of Che Camille, and her project, The Glasgow 10, it is becoming more of a Fashion Mecca. With great designers and a classy workshop and showroom available at the heart of the city it will soon be giving New York and Paris a run for it's money in the style stakes.
Camille began to work on the project just over two years ago after noticing a lack of locally made items. She says: "You go to other cities and there's boutiques and you see all the local designers and you can actually go in and meet some of them and get stuff that you can never see anywhere else. I thought that Scotland had so much talent but there was really no outlet."
So she started her Che Camille warehouse with other artists. Instead of simply taking the clothes from them and selling them, the warehouse was more about building relationships and getting the word ou tthere about designers. Camille also wanted to express how important it was for people to buy things locally.
"Ok you might not have the same prices as say, Primark but it's stuff that lasts a bit longer, fits a bit better, less trendy and gone the next season." She explains
The Glasgow 10 is a resident team of designers who will work in a 35,00 square feet loft space, with their pieces available to the public. Camille says of the designers: "What I'm looking for in them is they want to have experience, they've got the good design quality, technically they need to be able to make the stuff to a really high product, not just by machinists, the design needs to be good and they need to be really determined to actually put the work in, because what we're trying to say is, we do a lot of work bringing you customers, and helping you build a brand but you need to be behind it as well."
"I've got four in place then I've got other people doing guest collections in store. Those people may end up joining the Glasgow 10 but at the moment it's a lesser commitment from them. At the moment we've got people who do, bags, jewellery, made to measure jeans, jackets and dresses and hats. I've got a shoe designer but she's in London but I love her so she's gonna come up and do kind of a month here to sell things then come back for orders and things. We'll probably take phone ones and just have more residencies for a month and that way we'll bring people in and the locals can build bridges with them as well."
The final ten should be in place by the Summer but those already involved are working hard until then as the store in the Argyll Arcade on Buchanan Street opened on Saturday.
"It's really up and coming, with sky lights, but it's at the top of an old building so it's like a secret! We've got a workshop joining, there's a gate between the workshop and the shop so you can actually see them working while your shopping. I've told them, 'No music too loud! Watch you're language!' Because it's real, you can see who's behind it instead of them hiding behind a screen and they enjoy it too, getting to work together, because design is quite solitary sometimes."
The project is also supported by Scotlans With Style which has been a big boost. Camille explains: "It's a huge project to get someone to believe in it and get behind it cause it's not really been done before so you have to show people the business side of it but we do have support from Scotland with Style and They support the local design and the local economy. They've been wonderful, it's nice to have someone official behind you and saying we appreciate what you're doing."
Camille feels that is important for designers in Scotland to have somewhere to go, so that they are not lost to London.
"If there's nowhere else for them to sell, they've got to go." She says.
"You look at people who have to go to London to get experience and they have to work with no pay for six months to a year. And also obviously people from London have more connections so it's easier for them to find somewhere to go so we're saying up here we can start looking after people wherever they're coming from, or graduated from and even people that have been down to London I think are coming back. This city is so bold and there's always something going on and everyone is really friendly and open and there's a great network so when we do stuff we try to make it quite social because you don't want to do that arty, farty thing and people love it! We've had customers that have followed us all the way from the warehouse in the ghetto to up here and it's so touching to see that people come back and there's the same designers that they love and they'll always find their stuff in the shop, they'll go right through it. It's quite sweet actually!
As well as turning the city into a go-to place for designers she wants to help the people on the streets in their quest to be stylish: "The natural tendency here on a Saturday night on the streets is to flash the flesh, so we're trying to teach people, obviously not everyone needs to be taught, but we're trying to say you can be sexy and elegant at the same time, a bit of class. So I'm quite careful what I sell, I try to sell stuff that I would wear myself, that you wouldn't be embarrassed to give your grandfather a hug in!"
Camille has always wanted to work in fashion but when it came to studying she took a nother route.
"It's kind of an ugly world and I didn't want to get stuck doing it, playing by the rules so instead I picked project management, marketing and other art things, then finally one day it just made sense and I knew how I could do it so i just started. Under no illusions, it was completely hard work and starvation and all that, if you don't mind getting up in the morning and doing long days then you're doing the right thing."
Inspiration is important to designers and Camille feels that she is constantly inspired: "It's something I can't really turn off. I'm a total nerd when I go to an art gallery or see something, I'll make a note! I think my partner gets really annoyed with it! I'm a total magazine junkie, even internet, I'm a google geek! I love to just see what everyone else is doing! It's just every time you see something you'll put it into a little pot and then when the moment comes and you know that that's what that's there for."
She must be doing something right because she was crowned the Most Stylish Boutique at this year's Scottish Style Awards with the judges calling the store unlike anything that has ever existed in Scotland. It was important for Camille to get recognition for her work.
"Sometimes you're doing something and you know how important it is to you but you don't know if anyone's noticing but something like that just shows you you're on the right track. And it's true it's harder trying to do something that's not been done and people look to you and they have to understand it but the fact that people are starting to pick up on it and appreciate it is so nice."
The store relies on a lot of word of mouth in gaining customers but it's a process that works for them.
So what is next for Camille and The Glasgow 10?
"I think it's a sad thing that everyone keeps talking about the credit crunch but i think people are realising it's time to stop all the throwaway nonsense so what we're trying to look at is sort of, putting things back in the local economy. I think people are actually more aware of local businesses and I think things that are carefully made in Britain and Scotland are being appreciated a lot more. Even the way your grandparents were was sort of saving things, putting things away for your kids and heirloom stuff, I think there will be kind of a renaissance and interest in the stuff that is actually done properly and taken time and pride on, less is more really.
"It's one thing that makes me sad about America really, I think Europeans have a better appreciation for that, of the old way of doing things and not throwing everything away for something that may not be better in the first place."
So will we soon be seeing a Glasgow fashion Week? If Camille's work continues to flourish then we think so!
Glasgow has always been a stylish city but thanks to the work of Camille Lorigo, founder of Che Camille, and her project, The Glasgow 10, it is becoming more of a Fashion Mecca. With great designers and a classy workshop and showroom available at the heart of the city it will soon be giving New York and Paris a run for it's money in the style stakes.
Camille began to work on the project just over two years ago after noticing a lack of locally made items. She says: "You go to other cities and there's boutiques and you see all the local designers and you can actually go in and meet some of them and get stuff that you can never see anywhere else. I thought that Scotland had so much talent but there was really no outlet."
So she started her Che Camille warehouse with other artists. Instead of simply taking the clothes from them and selling them, the warehouse was more about building relationships and getting the word ou tthere about designers. Camille also wanted to express how important it was for people to buy things locally.
"Ok you might not have the same prices as say, Primark but it's stuff that lasts a bit longer, fits a bit better, less trendy and gone the next season." She explains
The Glasgow 10 is a resident team of designers who will work in a 35,00 square feet loft space, with their pieces available to the public. Camille says of the designers: "What I'm looking for in them is they want to have experience, they've got the good design quality, technically they need to be able to make the stuff to a really high product, not just by machinists, the design needs to be good and they need to be really determined to actually put the work in, because what we're trying to say is, we do a lot of work bringing you customers, and helping you build a brand but you need to be behind it as well."
"I've got four in place then I've got other people doing guest collections in store. Those people may end up joining the Glasgow 10 but at the moment it's a lesser commitment from them. At the moment we've got people who do, bags, jewellery, made to measure jeans, jackets and dresses and hats. I've got a shoe designer but she's in London but I love her so she's gonna come up and do kind of a month here to sell things then come back for orders and things. We'll probably take phone ones and just have more residencies for a month and that way we'll bring people in and the locals can build bridges with them as well."
The final ten should be in place by the Summer but those already involved are working hard until then as the store in the Argyll Arcade on Buchanan Street opened on Saturday.
"It's really up and coming, with sky lights, but it's at the top of an old building so it's like a secret! We've got a workshop joining, there's a gate between the workshop and the shop so you can actually see them working while your shopping. I've told them, 'No music too loud! Watch you're language!' Because it's real, you can see who's behind it instead of them hiding behind a screen and they enjoy it too, getting to work together, because design is quite solitary sometimes."
The project is also supported by Scotlans With Style which has been a big boost. Camille explains: "It's a huge project to get someone to believe in it and get behind it cause it's not really been done before so you have to show people the business side of it but we do have support from Scotland with Style and They support the local design and the local economy. They've been wonderful, it's nice to have someone official behind you and saying we appreciate what you're doing."
Camille feels that is important for designers in Scotland to have somewhere to go, so that they are not lost to London.