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There’s something about me and sewing machines. We tend not
to get on. Needles break, the bobbiny thing gets stuck in something else that probably has
a technical name. It ends in tears. I can’t make clothes.
 Shirley Williams can. She carries
around a notebook stuffed to the gills with ideas, sketches, swatches of fabric —
it’s a design object in itself. She’s a fabric junkie, eyes peeled for new
ideas, scouring charity shops for unusual material, putting fleece, mesh and lycra
together in ways that sound utterly implausible — well, I’m not quite up to
speed on the difference between blanket stitch and overlocking — but end up looking
gorgeous, cuddly, comfortable and fun. And very different.
With an HND in fashion design and illustration from Nene College under her belt, Shirley
served the usual garment industry apprenticeship — her first job was as a pattern
cutter for a leisure wear manufacturer in glamorous Leicester — but always knew she
wanted to design in her own right. Coming to London in 1989, she started styling publicity
shots and pop videos (Des’Ree was an early client) — and carried on sewing,
first for herself, then for friends. Word spread. She began to sell her clothes
commercially, got ripped off, started a cooperative design group, set up her stall in
Spitalfields. Developing new techniques and working on some of the features that make her
designs so distinctive today.
In 1998 she found herself designing the costumes for a Hackney based dance company, the
Booming Cherries, and collaborating with Maria, from Helsinki in Stoke Newington Church
Street, on a fashion show staged for the Stoke Newington festival. Maria was on the
look-out for new designers, original ideas — and something that would spark the
interest and the all too easily jaded palate of the Stokie shopper. Shirley had the goods,
in abundance. It was a marriage made, if not in heaven, then certainly on Church Street.
 A year later, and the collaboration is
going from strength to strength. By the time this issue of N16 hits the streets,
Shirley’s new range — no two items alike — will be on the Helsinki rails
and almost certainly waltzing out of the shop: soft lycra jerseys, Shirley’s
best-seller trademark zip fleeces, stretch denims and meshes, relaxed layers of practical
easy-wearing fabrics in a dazzling array of colours. They’re a beguiling combination
of form, function and eminently wearable fun at surprisingly keen prices — all
exclusive to Helsinki.
If you want to be doubly different, Shirley can take customer orders — just speak to
Maria. What you’ll get will reflect Shirley’s own approach to fashion, honed by
an instinct for what works, what’s happening and what people want to wear —
quite literally, clothes you can live in and with. No fashion police, no style victims.
Which makes a very pleasant change.
Paris may have Alistair McQueen, Stella McCartney and John Galliano, but we’ve got
Shirley Williams. So who needs ‘em?
Shirley William’s clothes are available exclusively at Helsinki, 121 Stoke Newington
Church Street. Opening hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10.30-6; Sunday, 2-6. Closed Monday.
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