Chatz no. 4: Emily Carter Edition

I predict Emily Carter to be the next Iris Apfel... in 70 years. But most probably all kinds of famous in the years between then and now. Get under this red headed beauty's milk & honey skin below. 

Who are you and what do you do?






 I am Emily Carter. I’m just going into my 3rd year doing fashion textiles at the London College of Fashion, and I’m a freelance surrealist illustrator on the side. I have an indefinite love for animals and insects and am always striving to see and experience new things.











           

Why do you love insects? I do love insects, purely because of their extraordinary diversity in texture, shape and colour; their symmetry makes them really beautiful to draw. I also think I have a fascination with the way they're so precisely laid out in insect books, in order of size and species. There’s something really appealing about it.









           






If you could be any insect, which would you be?








 Ooh. That's a tricky one..











           

How about, if you had to eat any insect, which would you eat?











I would either be a stag beetle, or an emperor moth. Aaaaand, if I was to eat a bug, I would eat a crunchy caterpillar.











           

Gross. 




How do you find studying fashion?









 Well everyone has this strange perception of 'fashion', and thinks its some kind of weird exclusive club. When in fact it's just damn hard work. I am in the studio 9-8 most days. It's no swim in the park. But I do love it, all the same.











           

What do you do 9-8?









 
Use the machinery, dubied knitting machines, Irish embroidery machines and the printing facilities. It can take an entire day to just get one sample sometimes which is pretty soul destroying.











So what is the outcome at the end of your study? Where should you be in the world? Who are you meant to be?











That is a question which I'm struggling to answer myself at present. I thought I was a fashion designer, then reassessed and thought I was a textile designer. I now realise I'm probably more suited as an illustrator. The only plan I have, is to work my way up in a fashion house, and have my own illustration/fashion line/business on the side, which I'm hoping I will be able to put into full swing once I'm earning enough to support it.











What lifestyle do you idolise at the moment? Who do you look at and think, I want to crack open your rib cage and live inside you?









 I would love to be one of those people that gets invited to events and shows, and automatically has a reservation because people know who I am and what I do. I would also like to change the way things are now in some way, and be remembered for that. Like Vivienne Westwood did, or Grayson Perry.

If you couldn't do fashion or illustration, what would you do instead?









 I always wanted to be a paleontologist, or work in the antique and decorative arts industry (which I still really want to do)









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I'm just imagining how amazing your house will be by the time you're 50. Personally, I would like to live a parallel life as a taxidermist who encrusts animals with precious stones and wears ridiculous amounts of diamonds and sapphires and rubies, but dresses vaguely homeless... and everyone will always be questioning how I came across all these diamonds and I'll just smile and babble away in some thick eastern European accent. 
Anywho, if you were only allowed to wear one type of fabric from now until eternity, which would you choose?









 Devore velvet. 100%. Feel luxurious all the time. My house is going to be incredible! 




I was saying to someone the other day, I plan one day to design my own house. Paint it in ridiculous colours, have taxidermy and sparkly gold things hanging from the ceilings, it'll be more like a haven of beautiful clutter than a house. And I will be one of those old ladies with her cats, fully dressed, jewelled and make-upped every day. Wouldn't have it any other way!











Perfect! So you're living in London at the moment right? How does that suit you?









 London is great for the amount of opportunities and contacts it has to offer. I am a born and bred country bumpkin so I do have a love/hate relationship with cities in general, but it has grown to be my home.











If you had to pinpoint your favourite thing about London in one word?









 Innovation. -  sounds cringe, but it is the heart of new creativity and inspiration.











And your most hated thing (in one word)?









 ihatetheunderground











I feel ya gurlfriend. What's your philosophy on love?









 Now that’s a question. I've actually done a lot of re-figuring in my head recently. Turns out love isn't what I thought it was, who really knows what it is anyway? Infatuation, comfort, desperation? I think people think they know what it is, I thought I did, but when it comes down to it, you need to love yourself first and be happy with your life and who you are, on your own. Then I think you'll love someone for the right reasons.









                        

           

Have you ever been groped on the underground?








 Sadly, I don't think so.











           

I just ask because I recently read an article about how some crazy percentage of Japanese women are groped on the underground. Anyhow! What music can you recommend that is under appreciated?




 Haha, well it has happened to people I know, but thankfully never myself. I have a pretty grumpy look on my face whenever I’m on the tube so I doubt anyone would attempt to! Hmmm music. My 3 favourites who I'd say were underrated are: Seth Lakeman, ELO and Nick Drake. Most of the music I listen to I think is underrated as people don’t appreciate the good stuff anymore!









 (I sound really old in saying that..)











Kicking it old school, I like it, I like it. What's something you wish more people knew about you?









 That just because I do fashion, it doesn't mean I'm unintelligent and uninterested in other things, quite the opposite. People always pre judge which I find very irritating!











And if you could give one piece of advice to a large body of people?




 Embrace your qualities and assets, and never try to be anything that you're not, it only makes you go backwards.











Have you ever struggled to heed that advice?









 Yeah. I’ve spent the majority of the last 10 years trying to look different and be a person I wasn't, I'm one of those people that has to try and experience everything, whether it suits me or not. It never got me anywhere, but I guess there’s no harm in trying.











           

So who are you now?









 I guess I'm just Emily Carter, the onlooker can decide who that is.

Find Emily on Facebook and her textiles on tumblr.