hfm FASHIONINSIDER
W
ith the word ‘cool’ so
overused, it’s tough
finding an adjective to
describe someone that
actually is the effortless
antithesis of try-hard.
When we meet fashion designer Sharon
Wauchob (pronounced ‘Wo-cob’) at the east
London studio she runs her self-named label
from, we decide she definitely is this.
Her career began in 1993, when Japanese
designer Koji Tatsuno offered her a job the
day she graduated from Central Saint
Martin’s, alongside fellow designer Hussein
Chalayan and editor-in-chief Katie Grand.
Although it was when Louis Vuitton hired
her to develop its accessory lines that her
career was well and truly assured.
“Marc Jacobs was signed [to the label]
the day before,” she tells us, with a soft
Northern Irish inflection. “I was told in
the interview they had just signed him. It
was a very interesting time.”
It’s hard to imagine now but Sharon was
the first person with a fashion background
to work as part of the luxury goods brand’s
accessory team, which was founded in- Its monochrome accessories were
popular with the au courant – but it wasn’t
until this creative injection in 1997 that
the label became a big fashion player.
“It was when they were changing. I saw
the change part, which was great and we had
a lot of freedom. Carte blanche.” In 2000,
two years before Sharon left Louis Vuitton,
she launched her own label (“but it was 2004
when we took it to the next level”). She did,
however, stay on to consult, before becoming
creative director at Edun, a fashion brand
founded by Ali Hewson and her husband
U2’s Bono, which promotes trade in Africa
and is also owned by LVMH.
Today Sharon is wearing a loose shirt and
Born into a rural farming family, Sharon Wauchob swapped lambswool
for Louis Vuitton, a life in Paris and the launch of her own label
STRONG
WOM E N
WORDS BECKY DONALDSONf