Sourcing the Muse

TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW WITH PAMELA EASTON AND LYDIA PEARSON
FASHION LABEL: EASTON PEARSON

Lydia Pearson: I didn't know that I was ever going to be involved in the fashion industry when I was growing up. But when I look back, it was almost inevitable because I spent most of my time playing with dolls' clothes and sewing and going op-shopping. And I was quite obsessed with old clothes and the way people used to look. But at the time I had no idea that that was going to be a career for me. It wasn't something that I ever thought about. It wasn't something that probably would've been acceptable to my parents as a career choice at that stage in my life.

So I really came in it sideways because I did French at university and went and lived in Paris for year. And when I came back I had no money. And to make some money while I was thinking what I'd do with myself, whether I'd go back to study again, or get a job, I made clothes for friends. And then someone who had a shop saw them and took them and that was how I started. And here I am.

I started just making one-off things for a boutique. And then I met some girls who were setting up a fashion agency and I didn't even know what an agency was, and they said to me, 'Oh, you should do a range.' And I said, 'Well, what's a range?' And they said, 'Well, you know, a group of clothes that all go together'. And I thought, 'Oh, OK'. And they said, 'We really need some shirts to sell. Why don't you make some shirts?' So I made some silk shirts. And that was my first - it was five shirts - so that was my first collection.

And I did that for a while, and then I had my own label which was going quite well and I had a shop. But I had my first child and found it very difficult: I was wholesaling and doing all the travelling and all the selling and my husband was working with me and it became really difficult. And I was just on the point of throwing the whole thing away and just being a mother when Pam came back from Melbourne and wanted to do something. And we got together. She'll tell you how we got together and started Easton Pearson.

Pamela Easton: I heard that she was thinking of starting another label, so we got together and talked about creating a business. And we thought that we should actually put on paper what our aspiration was, what we expected from the business, where we wanted the business to go, what it meant to us, and what we wanted from it - what sort of lifestyle we wanted to have. And they were so similar that we decided it was crazy to do it individually. And so we joined forces and thirteen years later we're still here.

Lydia Pearson: Pam and I do everything together. So we work together all day every day. We travel together and when we travel together we're together 24 hours a day. So the design process is almost constant. And we're at a point in our business now where there are a lot of people to do the other things that we used to do.

Apart from overseeing the management of the business, designing is really what we do all the time these days. And it's a constant evolutionary process. So we don't finish one range and put it away and sit down and start a new range. The ideas are almost in constant motion. And most of what we do is referencing either material that we've already been working on before or things that we've already done before that we want to evolve.

We sit together at a table in our workroom every morning, every day, sit on the corner of the table together, and when we're actually working on one particular garment, we will talk through… Often we start with fabrication because we do a lot of detailed work and a lot of handwork on the fabric, so often it starts with the specification for the embroiderer in India after we've sourced the base fabric and done the colouration. And we'll send that up, sometimes the work is done to the shape of the garment, so we have to do the pattern before we do the decorative element of the work. Otherwise, if it's just decoration on flat fabric, we'll send the specification off to India - very very detailed specification. And when we get the fabric back, we'll work on the pattern, the paper pattern, so we'll draw a picture of what the dress wants to look like or the garment wants to look like, and then we'll write quite a detailed verbal specification on the same piece of paper and give it to the patternmaker, and she'll make a toile in calico or in muslin or something and then we'll fit it on somebody – we don't work on a dummy, we work on a live person. And then it'll go back and be refined. And if there weren't too many changes, we'll make it straight away in the correct fabric. Or if the fabric's very precious and we're not quite sure, we'll do a second toile and fit again.

So it's quite an arduous process. And then even after the garment's made, and we've sometimes shown and sold it, we'll still come back afterwards and try it again on the model and do some more minor adjustments on the fit before we go ahead and make the garment.

Pamela Easton: I think our signature is probably the attention to detail. And a lot of people say that we're known for our handwork - the beading or hand embroidery or appliqué. So it's surface decoration as well as the finish, the particular finish that the garment might have. We're very keen that each garment is finished as well as possible. So it's not a mass-market finish. We use a lot of demi-couture techniques and there is a lot of handwork involved in our garments. So, yes, it's the detail.

Lydia Pearson: We do really love what we do and I think we're really lucky because we are passionate about design and our business. And the way we've structured our business is such that it does give us great pleasure and satisfaction. I think because we design most of our textiles, it's an added dimension; it's like creating a piece of art as such.

- Pamela Easton and Lydia Pearson