INTERVIEW WITH FASHION DESIGNER MARTIN GAEDE

Fashion Designer Martin Gaede

Martin Gaede is a Fashion designer who lives in Shanghai and works as Head Design for the Chinese label I-Dou. He grew up in Germany, moved to London when he was 19 and ended up studying fashion design at LCF.

While he can’t exactly remember when he knew he wanted to be a designer, he had always been creative ever since he was young.

‪He would say that his interest in fashion hadn’t begun until shortly before finishing secondary school.

What was your first job in the fashion industry?

My internship at Mary Katrantzou.

‪Talk about the changes in your life since you work as a Head  Designer for I-Dou

‪I’ve worked for the company while I was still studying. I would say that moving here and working directly in the studio has given me a lot of chances to learn and develop as a designer.

What’s it like being in the Fashion industry?

‪It’s a difficult industry but I got to learn a lot.

‪Describe what do you do in your work?

I am responsible for the designer line. The work includes sourcing fabrics and suppliers to designing and working with the pattern cutting and sewing teams in the company. This also means that I work with them on alterations for production and how to market the line.

What do you like about your work?

I like being in a creative environment. Being able to design and see my work develop into a collection is fascinating.

‪Tell us about your last collection

My last collection was inspired by a holiday in Australia. The prints are mostly inspired by nature and architecture there. I looked at animals and the details about them that I hadn’t really analyzed before and brought that into the silhouettes of the collection.

‪What inspires you?

For me everything can be inspiring, it just depends on how you look at things, whether it’s architecture, nature, politics, literature, clothing, technology.