SILVER LININGS

If you’d asked me at 30, if I’d ever work in fast fashion, I’d have told you absolutely no. No way. It just wasn’t for me. I had my eye on the luxury, high fashion labels, loved quality production, idolised British heritage brands.

But life has a way of bringing you what you need, whether you like it or not, and it turns out that a job in fast fashion was exactly what I needed - although I never could have known it at the time.

I started my career as a model, graduated as a designer at 30. I’ve worked for some amazing brands - Burberry, DKNY Jeans, Fred Perry - had the chance to live in Barcelona, Hong Kong, Singapore. I never had a plan, I just went with the opportunities that came up.

It was the same with that last job - the offer came, it looked interesting. I could do it for a little while, I thought - I had a mortgage to pay, some security would be good. Real life decisions.

Don’t get me wrong - I was working with some really talented, hard working, lovely people. This isn’t a condemnation of them. It’s just that I couldn’t find myself in that job, or respect the work I was doing.

I’ve always been about high quality, considered design and this world was fast, cheap and careless.

So I began to makes plans. I began to focus on what was really important to me: respect for craftsmanship, people and the environment. I allowed myself the time to get things right.

I began to focus on creating quality that will last - and that would improve with age.

And so elliot. was born.

I’m out of that job now, it’s nearly a year later. Doors are opening that could never have opened for me if I’d stayed put; I have the chance to live by my own rules, to be guided by my own values and beliefs.

Every day we make decisions - those decisions turn into a life.

So if you have the chance today, do one thing that feels true to you, you at your core - life is too short to do less than that - and you never know where you might end up.