Oyster #91: Lulu Kennedy

We featured the very talented Lulu Kennedy in issue #91, below is an extract.

It's a Monday morning during a particularly bitter November in London, and Lulu Kennedy is wrapped in a blanket. She still manages to look great, combining it with a classic wool sweater, brogues, a metallic brocade skirt and that always-in-place grin. Few people could carry off blanket chic, but then Kennedy is a rare breed. It's thanks to her (and her initiative Fashion East) that we now know names like Gareth Pugh, Roksanda Ilincic, Richard Nicoll, Jonathan Saunders, Marios Schwab, Louise Gray, Michael van der Ham and Meadham Kirchhoff.

You wouldn't know any of this from talking to her ? Kennedy is also one of the nicest people in fashion. She might be involved in the high drama world of backstage, but she never takes it too seriously. "Sometimes you have to remember: it's only frocks," she says.

Now an established figure in the fashion industry, there's no doubt that Kennedy inspires all that she encounters ? but who inspires her? We asked her to put together a list. "All of these people have spirit [and] obvious talent; I really connected with them," she says. "I have been inspired to carry on and, above all, to have a laugh."

Richard Nicoll

"He's a little talisman. I trust him implicitly."

Thinking about his Spring Summer 2011 collection, Richard Nicoll found himself on a trip down memory lane. "I was really into The Smiths, the Cure, Morrissey when I was younger," he says of his formative years in Perth. "We used to hang out at this old golf club, but it had a really louche atmosphere."

While Nicoll's designs have little to do with either Robert Smith's style or golf argyles, it's the point of view that translates. "I wasn't one of those kids that grew up reading Vogue," he says. "I'm always influenced by music." This time around, that meant David Bowie. "I wanted to make an evening collection that seemed relevant for now," he explains. "Bowie in the Thin White Duke phase has that pared back but decadent thing." Cue a minimal colour palette of white, black and flesh tones; elegant mannish tailoring; evening dresses featuring fishtails, lounge-worthy pleats and subtly subversive strapping.

Of course, he might not be here at all were it not for Kennedy. A Fashion East alumnus, Nicoll was the first designer to be given three seasons with the initiative. "Who knows what would have happened if she hadn't believed in me?" he says now. "From that point, my career took off." Six years later, it's gone stratospheric.

Louise Gray

"She doesn't suck up to anyone. I find that inspiring."

Growing up in rural Scotland, Louise Gray wasn't quite sure what fashion was ? but she knew that she liked it. "It was always something I was aware of," she remembers, "but it was about imagined things." With "dead-supportive" parents, she satisfied the itch by constantly making things.

Fast forward to 2011 ? via a Saint Martins (Central Saint Martins College of Artand Design) MA, Fashion East shows and solo presentations ? and this DIY ethos is still prevalent in Gray's designs. Her Spring Summer 2011 collection? the first presented on the catwalk ? had a childlike creativity, and was a welcome change from the current fashion moment of 'wearable classics'. Shorts came in see-through PVC and filled with polystyrene balls, badges covered sweaters and hair was full of streamers. "I think my aesthetic is quite young," she says, "I design with myself in mind? The pieces were styled how I would wear them."

While Gray is her own muse, she also inspires other designers. Always out on the London scene, she's instantly recognisable with trademark topknot, cropped tops and ? sometimes ? glitter eyebrows. Kennedy even points to Meadham Kirchhoff's Spring Summer 2011 show as "lots of little Lous". High praise indeed. Gray repays the compliment with one of her own: "Lulu is so inspiring, especially when she wears one of your designs."

Erol Alkan

"I learnt passion and conviction from him."

Last year, Erol Alkan spent ten days crossing the International Date Line. This meant living the same date again and again, as he travelled through different time zones. "You lap yourself," Alkan says. "It's pretty strenuous psychologically."

Playing over 150 gigs in one year, such travelling is par for the course for Alkan. The London born-and-bred DJ has been playing records since their heyday, reviving the mash-up in the late nineties and giving indie a home in the shape of noughties club Trash. So what's his secret to success? "No-one presents this to you; you don't win a competition," he says. "You do what you believe in and earn the luxury."

It's passion like this that has made him and Kennedy life-long friends. They met around the year 2000, when she called on Alkan's services for a party. "I had never met anyone called Lulu, so I had an image of the singer in my head," he laughs. "Obviously she was nothing like that."

"The good thing was we were never concerned with importance. It was just people doing great things." He describes Kennedy as someone with "great energy. I really trust her opinion." The feeling is evidently mutual.

House of Jazz

"Good for comedy and very down-to-earth."

Hazel Robinson and Pablo Flack are old friends. They finish each other's sentences, praise each other constantly and start gossiping the minute our interview is over. They first met in the mid-nineties, when London's creative scene was getting drunk in the now infamous Bricklayer's Arms. "It was our Boombox," says Flack in his soft Northern accent ? referring to the noughties glitter and glam club ? "where all the creative people converged."

The Bricklayer's Arms is also where the duo met Kennedy. A connection that came in handy when Robinson and Flack set up fashion label House of Jazz in 2000, because Fashion East was already in place. "We did the second season, I think," says Robinson. "She [Lulu] was always really supportive." The label ? witty, wearable designs for those East End girls ? lasted four years. "It was intense," says Flack; "like being married, really."

The two went their separate ways: Robinson currently consults for Giles, Ungaro, Loewe and T-shirt label, Illustrated People. "I have been very lucky," she smiles. Flack, meanwhile, co-founded Bistrotheque. Located on a back street in Bethnal Green, the restaurant is now a global sensation. "It's weird," he says. "You go to New York and people say, 'Oh, I love Bistrotheque!'"

They will soon love House of Jazz again, too. The label is back, with Kennedy proving a catalyst once again ? the duo created a dress for Lulu & Co. As to there launch, the designs will ? as Robinson says ? have "the same attitude, but for now." So when will it be revealed? "February's London Fashion Week will be the canap