Floaty, feminine, fun (From Living Northeast)

Floaty, feminine, fun

10:44am Monday 23rd March 2009 in

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Red carpet fashion designer Julia Clancey is a free thinker from a family of York scrap metal merchants. She left school at 15 to train as a hairdresser and is now taking the fashion world – and Hollywood – by storm. Ruth Campbell meets her.

AS a schoolgirl, growing up in York, Julia Clancey wasn’t an obvious candidate for international stardom and success. Born into a family of scrap metal merchants, she is the first to admit she could be a bit of a handful.

Her mother must have been tearing her hair out when Julia was sacked from her job at a fish and chip shop after turning up tipsy, wearing hot pants and a crop top, after drinking too much cider at the school playing fields. She went on to leave school at 15, with five Olevels, to train as a hairdresser in a small salon, doing mainly shampoos and sets.

But the teachers at Fulford Comprehensive who told her to forget about a career in fashion would probably now be astounded to discover that Julia’s stunning creations – in classically elegant silks and chiffons, with quirky, whimsical twists – are worn by Cameron Diaz, Mischa Barton, Dita Von Teese, Kelly Brook, Victoria Beckham, Tori Amos, Sophie Ellis Bextor and Denise Van Outen.

Her distinctively floaty, feminine, fun clothes, and her bold, striking jewellery, have featured in Vogue, Elle, Tatler and Marie Claire. American Vogue has even written a profile on her. She has homes in London and Los Angeles and spends much of her time jetting around the world unveiling her collections at major fashion shows.

Her clothes sell in France, Spain, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Kuwait, and Russia. And she has a regular list of celebrity clients who queue up to be dressed by her for big red carpet events.

When I speak to Julia, she has returned home briefly to see family and friends in York before heading off to do Rotterdam fashion show and prepare for the Baftas, Golden Globes and Grammy awards ceremonies. She was also putting the final touches to her spring collections for the New York and Paris fashion shows. “Everything happens at once,” she says. “It’s mad.” As she explains, events like the Oscars aren’t just about one evening: “There’s a whole week of parties and events beforehand. You have to do the circuit.”

For someone who works in the world of high fashion, Julia, 38, is refreshingly funny, down-to-earth and open. She might party regularly with Lady Victoria Hervey but she has no airs and graces. She didn’t go to art college and has no formal training, only an incredible talent. And she is clearly a grafter.

Sometimes, when she is sitting by the pool at her luxurious LA home, she looks back on her time as a hairdresser at Maison Lee in York and admits she cannot believe the life she is living now. “It can be so glamorous and exciting, when I get something in Vogue or stuff in the Oscars, and I go to some amazing parties in LA.”

Her mother Pam is, of course, brimming with pride, although she confesses self-taught Julia’s success has taken everyone by surprise. “She was always way out with her fashion; she had her own, unique flare. I think she was too much for York,” she says.

Julia’s brother Andrew, 40, is a successful fashion stylist in London, but Julia laughs when I ask where the talent comes from. “The big joke in the family is we don’t know.Mumcan draw a good horse and dad has the knack of creating things out of silver foil wrappers.”

Success didn’t come easy, though. After qualifying as a hairdresser, Julia travelled the world working in a series of jobs, from holiday rep to cocktail waitress. In Australia, she worked on a fashion magazine and was eventually promoted to editor. She also did some copywriting for advertising agencies and helped style advertising campaigns.

When she returned to London, she worked as a stylist for pop bands – including the boy band 911, Catatonia, and Stereophonics – customising, developing and eventually designing her own outfits for music videos because she could never find what she wanted. Her big break came when one director, assuming she was a dress designer, asked her to produce outfits for a huge multimillion pound advert for Whirlpool.

She hesitated for a few seconds. “I thought, do I tell him I’m not really a designer? But the budget was huge, I just had to do it,” she said. She made stunning dresses out of shattered mirrors, and never looked back.

“I did it on my own after that,” says Julia, who launched her first collection in 2003. Her initial designs were fresh and dramatic – showy, leather, studded catsuits and timeless, elegant dresses with unexpected twists, such as slashed necklines, plunging backs, satin bows, pleats, crystal accessories and exotic trimmings.

She also produced bold jewellery based on the art deco architecture that she loves.

One fashion writer described her latest spring/summer 2009 collection as “Bianca Jagger goes clubbing in ancient Greece”. Her ambition now is to design a dress for Uma Thurman. “Certain dresses only work for certain people and I haven’t designed one for her yet.”

Julia, whose pieces sell for between £400 and £3,000, loves being different. “The good thing about not going to college is that I think much more freely. A lot of people are taught in a certain way, to think the same. But breaking into fashion wasn’t easy. It can be bloody hard work and when things go wrong, there’s a lot of stress.

You have no idea how you’re going to pay the mortgage.”

Each collection costs about £30,000 to make and if a factory lets her down before a show, it’s a disaster. She almost didn’t make LA Fashion Week, just before the 2008 Academy Award ceremony last year, when her clothes were held by US customs until the day before the show. “I could have given up many times by now, but you have to believe in yourself,” she says.

CLOTHES take up a large part of Julia’s home. “In London I have a railing all along the hallway from one end of the house to the other and it’s packed full of dresses, ball gowns, tulle and jackets.” She loves to surround herself with decadent glamour. “It has an incredible effect on your well-being. If I didn’t work in fashion, I would probably have gone into interiors,” she says. “I may have inherited something from my mother, who is forever clasping a bunch of swatches for redecorating.”

Julia’s London kitchen is spray-painted bright Ferrari red – she ordered the paint directly from the Ferrari factory in Modena – and she has created a stage in the garden. Her LA pad is more minimalist and restrained but she cannot resist whimsy, whether it’s silver pigs or her mannequin ‘stabbed’ with kitchen knives.

Life in London and LA may be fun, but Julia loves returning to York. “It is nice to come back down to earth,”

she says. She is going out with old friends – all of whom are married or divorced with children and work in everything from social services to hairdressing – on Saturday night. She will stay with her good friend Lucy Jackson, who lives on a farm at Beningborough Hall, and has just opened a farm shop (“Please give her a mention, she’s fantastic, and really talented at interiors too,” says Julia).

Julia regrets not being encouraged more when she was at school, where she failed her O Level art. “Anything artistic was viewed as a hobby. I spent most of my time outside the classroom asking why is this relevant?

The whole thing was such a waste of time.”

Now she would like to return and inspire others: “I would like to tell pupils that if they want to do it and they have flair and remain focused, they can.”

And what better inspiration than Julia herself? “I have so much fun; life is an absolute ball.”

www.juliaclancey.com