F-NEWS Editor's Pick
Professor Louise Wilson: 'I'm not rude, I'm just honest'
The reputation of Prof Louise Wilson, OBE, the 50-year-old director of the fashion MA course at Central Saint Martins, precedes her, so I recognise her response to my opening gambit as what we'll call Classic Wilson.
Well, that's not a good question to start with, is it?' she huffs loudly from behind her desk. 'How am I feeling after the MA show? Hasn't stopped. Haven't had a day off, have I? And now I've got a new assessment form being presented to me that I can't understand. With 32 learning outcomes and…' She continues for several minutes in her stroppy boom, a deep Scots-turned-Estuary accent that's all dropped Ts like a teenager might affect.
There aren't many people I enjoy being upbraided by, but having heard so many stories of Wilson's wall-trembling yelling from young British designers - household names, mind, who still pull scared faces when they talk of her - I relish a glimpse of her scorn. When she tells me she will hunt me down and shoot me if I report anything of her rant against the shortcomings of the fancy new building in King's Cross into which the college moved last year I feel like part of an elite gang. 'The red beret' she calls it when you've completed her two-year course. 'We've been through something together and we all recognise what we went through and it does create a bond,' she says. 'It doesn't mean we all have to love each other but there's a camaraderie.'
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Well, that's not a good question to start with, is it?' she huffs loudly from behind her desk. 'How am I feeling after the MA show? Hasn't stopped. Haven't had a day off, have I? And now I've got a new assessment form being presented to me that I can't understand. With 32 learning outcomes and…' She continues for several minutes in her stroppy boom, a deep Scots-turned-Estuary accent that's all dropped Ts like a teenager might affect.
There aren't many people I enjoy being upbraided by, but having heard so many stories of Wilson's wall-trembling yelling from young British designers - household names, mind, who still pull scared faces when they talk of her - I relish a glimpse of her scorn. When she tells me she will hunt me down and shoot me if I report anything of her rant against the shortcomings of the fancy new building in King's Cross into which the college moved last year I feel like part of an elite gang. 'The red beret' she calls it when you've completed her two-year course. 'We've been through something together and we all recognise what we went through and it does create a bond,' she says. 'It doesn't mean we all have to love each other but there's a camaraderie.'
Continue Reading »
