Website: www.hamishmorrow.com

Hamish Morrow was born in South Africa in 1968 of British parents. He came to England and studied at Central St. Martins and the Royal College of Art, in London.

He trained with John Bartlett at Byblos in Milan, Italy, and started his own label in 2000. In addition to his designs under his own name, he is now designing for Gianfranco Ferre in Milan, although his own ideas are far from Ferre's architectural spirit.

He made his debut in Spring/Summer 2001 at the London Fashion Week. He has already had a full page descriptive editorial in American Vogue fashion magazine in 2001.

His signature clothes are black lace dresses, which are romantic, sheer, risqué and remarkably grand, in the best British tradition. One of them is shown in the picture on this page. He does not put a lining in these dresses, so ladies will probably be wearing slips underneath. He sold quite a lot of his lace dresses from Barney's, the famous store in New York.

His fall collection included other clothes such as a flannel coat with a huge rose-like ruff of organza, and sharply tailored crystal-sprinkled tweed jackets with floral ruffles poised on the shoulder. The intricacy of the pieces and the craftsmanship involved, place Hamish Morrow's creations somewhere between ready-to-wear and couture.

Spring/Summer 2003

Hamish Morrow participated in London Fashion Week in September 2002, showing his Spring/Summer 2003 collection. Here on the left, is a dress from that show.

Autumn/Winter 2003

Morrow took part in the London Fashion Week showing his Winter collection in February 2003. On the right is a dress from the collection.

His thought process this season has been inspired by parachutes and military aviation. The two-inch wide nylon tape used in parachute construction was incorporated into his tailoring and appeared as strips of ribbon running across turtlenecks.

He has a strong sense of colour, one of the few designers who can mix purple, green, peach, metallics or royal blue with success. He approaches design as an academic restructuring exercise, taking on the challenge of combining scientific and sport technologies into clothing. But he also has a taste for gorgeous old-world ornamentation on his clothes.

Krizia

In addition to his own collection, Morrow has worked with Mariuccia Mandelli for two of her Krizia collections. Click through to Krizia for the details. However in February 2004, Hamish announced that he would not be designing any more for Krizia, since he was not able to design as he wished for the label.

Spring/Summer 2004

During London Fashion Week in September 2003, Hamish Morrow showed his collection for next Spring. An outfit from the show is shown on the left.

Morrow marries technique with concept in a skillful array of designs. Glitter hotpants with elegantly tailored jackets, chic dresses in faded digital print had fluorescent belts. Skinny jersey separates were fastened with see-through plastic straps. The whole collection with its delicate colours, metallic effects and rigorous geometry, was made without a single stitch. It was all pieced together with ultrasonic welding.

In January 2004, Hamish announced that he would not be presenting his Autumn/Winter 2004 collection at London Fashion Week in February, as originally planned. He would instead focus his attention on the restructuring process of his business to ensure that it survives the transition from small to medium.

He opted to present his technically complex Fall collection in a Paris showroom. Hamish likes to integrate high-tech concepts with traditional methods of making clothes. He ran lengths of stretchy industrial cord through silk jersey to make dresses and tops which can be draped, ruched and tightened by the wearer. Prints were derived from thermal imaging, which mapped the body to show clusters of colour - swirling forms of purple, magenta and green, at the stress points.

2004