Byline: Alice Kahrmann

Designer Coco Fennell is bright as a button on opening the door; greeting me with a smile, big hoop earrings, a beany hat on her head – her fair hair dyed jet black just this morning, ‘I’ve got that mark around my hairline!’ she laughs tucking an errant wisp away. It’s hard not to feel honoured on crossing the threshold, on sneaking a peek through the looking glass; a tiny little door on a nondescript back alley in the East End and yet behind it, up the threadbare stairs, past the bicycle leaning in the hallway is the wonderful world of Coco; a large flat come studio that is just the hippest space I’ve seen this side of Shoreditch. Exposed brick work, fluoro art adorning the walls, blackboard paint in the kitchen, a huge Tracy Eminesque presentation box of her name in the living room; every centimetre of space adorned with manna from design heaven. The designer loves bric a brac - a girl after my own heart.


Coco is young, barely 23, the brand is equally in its first year of development. Visuals are her strong point, I am shocked to hear her hip minimalist website is a template; a web platform where you pay $20 per month. Further all the orders are send out by hand, by the designer herself, 'I need to improve on my wrapping skills!' That's some serious attention to detail. But what of the clothes? ‘Relief’ is the word that springs to mind on viewing the collection. Long flowing maxi dresses skim hips, shorter tea dresses cover arms, nipped in waists make the most of curvaceous voluptuous body shapes. You won’t find the thin hanger like aesthetic of Valentino ('if the girls are skinny, the dresses are more attractive') or other high-end designers. Even her choice of model is a homage to full fifties inspired styling, the girl Mimi Wade was found through a friend - a photographer. In Coco’s words ‘she’s got a brilliant figure but she’s normal shaped. I wouldn’t want to use anyone who wasn’t.’ Looking at her photograph on the wall I can’t help but be drawn to her bee-stung lips, multicoloured hair and sylph like eyes. This is no generic Eastern European teenager. More a cross between Jessica Rabbit and a Manga doll, a cartoon bombshell brought to life.

So these are clothes for the every woman it seems, with a price range to reflect that. Non-sale items start at £69 for a shirt, dresses go up to £189; no more than Topshop or H&M. These are the customers Fennell is targeting, girls who ‘just want to feel nice and not have their arms or tummy out or whatever they don’t like.’ Surprisingly for a designer Fennell doesn’t seem to give much kudos to fashion itself, ‘Trends come and go’ she says, ‘but no-one really cares when it boils down to it about trends when they’re dressing.’

Coco’s ‘first thought is always how to make the pieces flattering… There are designers that are really skilled - they make awesome stuff that looks fantastic on the catwalk and that’s niche and people will love it, but I think it’s important to have stuff that’s affordable and appealing to the general public.’ She knows well the scourge of the changing room, ‘My clothes make women feel good instead of going into a department store with crap lighting and then coming out super depressed.' I couldn’t have put it better myself, having recently witnessed at close range the madness that was Marni for H&M.

So I’ve got the measure of the woman; this is one designer who’s a friend rather than a foe. More than we could hope for in light of an industry obsessed with the rigours of the female form. So what does she think of the obsession with low BMI’s? ‘I think it’s a shame because if you think of all the 90’s models they were thin but they were also hot and looked amazing. And now when you go to the agencies the girls are 14, they’re just not adults… You don’t realize they haven’t hit puberty yet and they’re just dolled up to look incredible, but they’re not women.’

So we’ve weighed in on size zero, but what about the challenges she herself has faced? She started off with her sister, incubating ideas, getting excited but then her sister got a part in a period drama and the rest is history. ‘It is challenging,’ she admits, she’s learning as she goes along. ‘But I really like it… It would be fantastic to have someone a bit further along to speak to about things. I should find someone really. It’s nice to learn from someone rather than stabbing in the dark.’

Manufacturing is another area that has been a steep learning curve; an ever-present challenge to ‘find someone good so you don’t feel permanently worried that things aren’t going to arrive.’ Coco has been through this herself, particularly with factories in India, 'They were really sweet… But they always say yes and it’s not actually a yes so I wouldn’t know when things would turn up. I didn’t want to start getting into wholesaling and not being able to complete orders so it wasn’t feasible to keep working with them.’ The designer has now moved the operation to Vietnam, an ethical factory ‘where all the staff are over 18, are well looked after and the conditions are nice. I would never use somewhere dodgy to make a quick buck.’ The thought hadn't crossed my mind. This is one designer who dots the i’s and crosses the t’s. ‘I‘m a list person,’ she laughs, ‘I have so many lists that I don’t do anything. I just spend my time writing lists!’

What about training? Fennell certainly hasn’t gone down the tried and tested Central St Martins route, but through the school of life; an MA in trial and error. She admires those who have gone before, Henry Holland for example, ‘I think he’s awesome. He has PR’d himself so well.’ Fennell didn’t go to university either, plunging head first into the world of work, ‘I did a course in graphic design then started working for a magazine and met the girl who does the illustrations for my prints; she did my first prototype - a dress with little fencing men.’ The legacy was born.

So how is she going to get the brand more visible? Well she’s already experienced the power of the celebrity endorsement with some hip starlets wearing her clothes, Pixie Lotte for example. in Coco’s words 'she’s cute as hell'. Daisy Lowe's another, 'she's quite curvy. Anyone I would like to wear them is.’

This brings me to the question burning a hole in my mind. It’s well documented that Coco is the daughter of renowned and seriously upper crust designer Theo Fennell, jeweler to the stars. This is gilded dynasty she springs from, so has privilege been more or a help or a hindrance? ‘I think a lot of people could look at me or my sister and say “well obviously” they can do that because of their parents and the industry they’re in and I can’t argue with that, but people assume you don’t work as hard and you do…’ she trails off and I can tell it pains her, this implication that her success isn’t hard won, that she might have had it easier than others. In fact she has nothing to worry about, her talent speaks for itself, privileged background or not. I hesitate to use the phrase ‘champion for women’ but this is what I’m thinking. The wearability factor of the clothes, the eye of a young Diane Von Furstenberg the fun, bubbly, opinionated (but in no way saccharine) personality of a close female friend. That’s the ethos Fennell embodies. She doesn’t need to worry; the allusions to her background will fade once her talent becomes more recognized.

So what would Coco be doing if she weren’t a designer? ‘If I get my nerve together, I would love to sing,' she blushes, switching at breakneck speed from bright and charismatic to shy and retiring. ‘I’d be pretty happy to be in the circus to honest, if I had the confidence to do that stuff I’d definitely do it. I’ll get there!’

The striking visuals of a circus canopy, Coco in the red jacket of a ringmaster, bringing all the elements together, yes that’s the image I leave with. She accompanies me down the stairs. I feel a bump back to reality; there it is - a Subway across the road, a Pret on the corner, the Technicolor world of Coco recedes as she waves me off in the direction of the tube. I want to go back, it was nicer up there damnit! Back to a wet, rain sodden Thursday. I comfort myself with the thought that this certainly won’t be the last I'll be seeing of Coco Fennell. Certainly not.

16th May 2012