From whom I take inspiration There are all kinds of different challenges to being a designer: communicating with clients to extract the perfect brief to suit their needs; or refining a collection so that it carries a strong single theme all the way through; or even directing an art department to find the perfect print campaign to sell a collection. However, recently I had a short break from all those stressful challenges when a client, Maria Osborne, asked me to design a winning dress for the Punchestown Races Best Dressed Award. Maria had already won the award in 2012, but she had no idea what theme she ought to go for this year. When I was thinking about it I decided to do something which would celebrate a true inspirational design for me: Karl Lagerfeld ––who had only recently passed away, but his legacy at Chanel, for over the almost forty years of his tenure there, can never fade. Karl’s penchant for Post-Modernism ––which values an ironical use of pastiche–– h
