Interior design and head to toe black with Kate from Little Black Look

Kate, We met working together at a sustainable fashion event, you were there with your preloved brand Little Black Look, but lets rewind a few years because fashion is not where it all started for you but in Interior design, tell us how you got into that?

I’ve always been creative, my dad was an architect so I would spend time with him

whilst he worked, so I knew early on that I wanted to do something along these lines.

I used to draw out layouts of houses and plans, designing my own imaginary

schemes, but it wasn’t until I was 14/15 when we were looking at career options that

I read about interior design as an actual career, and from that moment, that was

what I set my mind on. However, this isn’t what I pursued at university, I studied

product design after being interested in the creation of smaller objects at college. In

my final year I focused my major project on a retail interior solution, and the merge of

product, furniture and interiors was rooted. The great thing about a lot of creative

degrees is that there is flexibility to pivot between disciplines, or there certainly was

when I graduated. Armed with my major project and a couple of interior projects in

my portfolio, I went on to find my dream job in London as a retail interior designer.

Do you have a signature style when it comes to Interior design ?

I wouldn’t say I have a signature style, I always loved working with the individual

brands, creating a narrative and story around them, so each design was personal to

the brand. I loved the research aspect of this, and there is much more freedom to

flex those creative muscles for commercial clients as opposed to the personal nature

of residential interior design. Working in retail I was also able to not only design the

interior spaces, but also furniture too which I loved.

What project has been your most and least favourite?

Every project is different so I couldn’t pick from either end of the spectrum, but I did

love the energy and creative freedom when I was designing stores for All Saints.

This was in the mid-2000’s so at the height of its popularity. The aesthetic was very

much of the time. As I mentioned earlier, designing the furniture was a great part of

working with them too. The brand has a series of large warehouses where they had

teams who sourced and collected vintage furniture and antiquities. I adored visiting

these and picking out pieces to turn into shop fixtures for the stores. I also travelled

the most with this brand from Copenhagen to Iceland as well as across the UK. They

were a global force at the time.

Sketches from Kate's Interior Design retail projects

When and why did you make the switch to sustainable fashion?

When I was a partner at the design agency in Brighton, we started a sister company

called Spared which took waste materials and turned them into products and

furniture. There is so much waste that comes out of any interior project, and we were

passionate about shifting this. I was doing a lot of research around what we were

doing, which naturally led into the fashion industry and the huge amount of waste

that is created. I’ve always loved fashion, so I started to delve into this myself and

was so shocked by its impact, from materials and production, to supply chain and

quality (or lack of it) that this really opened my eyes to the damage that it was

causing.

I was a high street, fast fashion girl through my 20’s and 30’s, weekly shopping trips,

monthly hauls without a thought to the impact, so this completely changed my

perspective on how I viewed clothes, mix that with having a baby during Covid and I

decided to stop buying new clothes altogether. Initially this just shifted my

consumption to second-hand, but at the same level, buying too many ‘bargains’ but

as I’ve become more aligned with my personal style now, so my consumption

thought processes now revolve around, what do I need to support the wardrobe I

already have, will it work with at least 5 things I already own etc.

At Little Black Look you only curate black preloved pieces, tell us your thinking behind the concept?

I’ve always loved black, it’s been my go-to for years, I feel my most confident in black

and it’s been a constant in my wardrobe. When I made the switch to second-hand, I

would often struggle to find the black pieces I loved so I thought about offering this

myself. But not only for the love of it, but also the timeless nature of the colour itself.

We are all bombarded with trends and more recently micro-trends, and so it was

important for me to cut through these cycles and say, this can work at any time of the

year, be worn by anyone, of any age, of any shape, head-to-toe or just one killer

piece. I’m passionate about sourcing timeless pieces often with an edge, an

interesting texture or unique detail to really embrace a point of difference.

Little Black Look

What was the most iconic all-black look ever?

I think black looks iconic on everyone! But if I had to choose, I’d probably have to

cheat a little bit and say John Galliano’s Fall/Winter 1994 ready-to-wear collection

presented in Paris. He was making a comeback after losing everything and this

whole collection was created using an inexpensive black fabric. The power of this

collection was monumental at the time and put him firmly back on the fashion map. I

love the fact he chose black and created around 20 unique looks working with the

glossy and matte sides of the fabric to show textural changes and the illusion of

variety and all on a shoestring. I love that confidence, and black does that for me

every time.

For the last 20 years Kate has been a commercial interior designer, specifically in the

retail sector and have created interior schemes for brands including All Saints,

Mulberry, Selfridges and Burberry she now works as a creative consultant alongside Little Black Look and The Conscious Archive.

Web: littleblacklook.co.uk