Jane Shepherson. Portrait: Dennis Schoenberg.

fashion
1/25/2010

Jane Shepherdson: Top of the shops!


by Bella Freud


Jane Shepherdson is a fashion world enigma; one of the very few people that work in High Street fashion and still command respect from the higher echelons of the fashion industry. Why? She is the powerhouse responsible for taking a crap, naff brand of the 80’s and turning it into one of today’s most respected Überbrands. Topshop may have made her name, but Whistles is now where its at. Bella Freud catches up with the charismatic Jane Shepherdson.



In the old days of 20 years ago, ‘designer’ was a dirty word in manufacturing. Designers were considered to be people who made life awkward, always asking for things to be different. High Street fashion meant, at best, ripping off designers or rehashing the same old ‘bestsellers’ (the horrendous garment that had sold in volume for the last god knows how long). What Jane did was employ young, talented graduates from British art schools. She made the produce something tantalizing and fresh, and gave employment to young people who traditionally found it hard to get work in England. 

I met Jane when we were both on the judging panel of the Topshop New Generation award for British Fashion Week. Her conversation was clever and discerning and she had a non-egotistical gravitas about her, noticeably unusual given the powerful position she occupied. When she suddenly quit Topshop while the world appeared to be her oyster, it caused amazement in the industry. Though it is not unusual for people to suddenly take action when they have been quietly thinking about how to move on (Phoebe Philo did the same at Chloe), there was a lot of speculation about her reasons for leaving. 

In 2008, after being inundated with numerous offers, Jane decided to take on Whistles - the upmarket womenswear fashion brand - as her next project. Most people over the age of 35 have bought something from Whistles at some point, but perhaps not for a while. The idea of Jane Shepherdson turning Whistles into the next must have label, as she had done with Topshop, was wildly exciting to press and consumers alike. We fantasized about what beautiful, edgy visions we would find in that previously unprepossessing emporium. 

When I turn up to her offices to meet Jane again, they are light and airy, filled with drawings, swatches, garments and interesting looking people. Jane approaches smiling and looking cool. She has that casual glamour where her choice of clothes is un-dictated by trend; but her taste is superb so the clothes she wears are either brilliant, or brilliantly put together. Today’s outfit: avant-garde trousers made of track suit fabric, a stripy t-shirt and some lovely bondage style grey stilettos designed by Camilla Skovgard (who, incidentally, is also designing a range for Whistles). With her shining blonde hair just that punkier shade of pale, she looks like someone to be reckoned with. 


Bella Freud: This is your third season with Whistles, what are you doing? Is it very different from the way you worked at, and the work you did for Topshop? 

Jane Sheperdson: It is very different from Topshop, there are far fewer resources, and less staff. Last year all our backers went under, so there was considerable financial insecurity to deal with as well. I can see what it is like for designers now, there is a feeling of having to sell yourself which I haven’t had  before. 

BF: Has the pressure affected your ability to make decisions? You strike everyone as being switched on, having a good natural instinct, is it a matter of trusting your gut feeling? 

JS: To be decisive you need to be confident. I went through a period of being less sure and casting my mind back, thinking 'was I really so certain, or was it a consequence of being surrounded by all these great people?' When I came to Whistles we thought 'Should we sell out, or make it more commercial?' ‘No!’ was the immediate response. Whistles was a weird brand, it wasn’t really fashion. It was sort of pretty and mumsy. It was not an aesthetic any of us really got. When I came in I thought ‘We are going to make big changes and turn it into something we can understand.’ If you don’t understand something, you can’t drive it. You think ‘Why are the customers buying that? I hate it!’ We had to make it into something we understood, and we knew that needed to be radically different from what it was. But we knew that existing customers might hate it! There was a transition period of the existing customers not liking it and the new customers not coming in yet. Of course then you think ‘Shit, have we alienated everybody?’ Also there was the dilemma of whether these people will pay above a certain price for something that is overtly fashionable? Is it too edgy?’ 

BF: Was that hard, as you inclined towards the edgier? 

JS: We keep having to go back and revisit. The hardest thing is to design something you really like, and feel is exactly the aesthetic you have been striving for, but has the 'broad appeal' that say, 1000 women want to wear. We’re quite good at the edgy part, but then we say 'We need some broad appeal' and we’ll lurch over into something quite frumpy. If you can get that balance right, that’s where the success lies.  

BF: Do you think anyone else is getting that right at the moment? 

JS: I think some people are getting it in parts of their ranges; Isabel Marant is good at that, and Vanessa Bruno too. They have an appeal that is not seasonal. 

BF: They seem out of time rather than fashion. If you see something that you can’t place, then it is often Isabel Marant. 

JS: Yes, we were talking today about how a lot of what the most successful designers sell is quite easy and has broad appeal. Lanvin, for instance, is completely beautiful, but really wearable for anyone. 

BF: It’s odd the way the wearable thing will come on its own; when you try to make it wearable, something goes wrong.

JS: Yes, I know! We feel we’re getting some things right in terms of some of the collection, but it seems to be extremely hard work. It’s a distillation that we aren’t able to do quickly, we have to keep working at it. 

BF: Do you think that’s to do with creating its personality? 

JS: Yes I do. We all thought we knew what it should be like and how it should grow, but it’s got its own life. 

BF: Are you back under the Philip Green umbrella? I know there was some talk of him buying it when Bauger folded? 

JS: Oh no! [laughs merrily] I’m free! [laughs again] This is what it’s all about. I want to be free; I don’t want to work for anybody, to be told what to do. 

BF: So you have a backer? 

JS: We have a couple of shareholders and we, as a team, are also shareholders - me and the team who came with me from Topshop. We want to create something we are very proud of. 

BF: Everyone thinks you are a genius. How was it to have that expectation on you? But people are very loyal to you, aren’t they? 

JS: The press have been really nice, I think they feel it’s a brand they would like to succeed, that they would buy themselves. We only had a few months to put the first collection together, then we had to show it to everyone. They all said it’s great, but we knew it wasn’t. We felt totally exposed. 

BF: There’s always this perception that people are so bitchy in the fashion world, but they’re not, there is such goodwill. It is a convenient caricature but it doesn’t always apply. 

JS: Yes, absolutely. And people like the idea of the small business surviving. 

BF: Roksanda Illincic is a great choice of guest designer, she has that femininity but is cutting-edge. I can imagine you wearing her clothes. 

JS: She’s fantastic. She’s signed for 3 seasons. The first collection was 7 dresses and the next one is 10, though very different from the first. And they aren’t cheap (£300-£350), though much cheaper than her own line. They are beautiful and exquisite, but also slightly raw and they have a real sense of fun. They have been much more successful that we even thought. 

BF: When people have too much choice they don’t buy anything in the end. ‘Seven Dresses’ sounds very fairytale! 

JS: Yes! They are very cool dresses. We really love Roksanda.

BF: It buys you time to get the Whistles identity, especially as she seems to express the identity. 

JS: Yes it does. She is incredibly popular and also very well known, I think that everyone would love to own a Roksanda dress. 

BF: With all this work - have you managed to have any holidays? Are you quite strict about taking time off? 

JS: Yes I am, I do like to. I like to travel too. In fact, I've just been whale watching in West Cork over Christmas. A friend of my husband's said West Cork is now the top whale spotting place in Europe. He said it depends on the weather, but last year they went out and saw a Minke and a Humpback. 

BF: That’s great! It’s quite ‘fashion’ really, to do these very eccentric specialized things. It’s part of the search for beauty and perfection isn’t it? 

JS: [In hysterics] I completely agree. 

BF: Otherwise you end up an alcoholic. 

JS: Yes! [Laughs uproariously] That’s the other option - or both! 


www.whistles.co.uk 

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