Fashion world in a flap over Moray’s upscale handbags
WHEN Moray Luke’s mother took her to see the movie Marie Antoinette at the age of 10, it lit a spark inside which inspired her to pursue a career in fashion design.
Now 26, Moray is fresh home from London Fashion Week and packing her suitcase for Paris to showcase her sustainable line of handbags.
Unusually, Moray, from Kenfig, near Bridgend, decided to forgo the popular choice of cow leather and instead has created her designs using fish leather which would otherwise be sent to landfill.
Despite this major success at a young age – getting her named as one of WalesOnline’s 35 Under 35 list of young businesspeople – Moray revealed it wasn’t the easiest road to where she is now.
“Schooling wasn’t for me,” she explained, “Academia was definitely not for me.”
Instead, Moray drew inspiration from vintage fairs, films and St Fagans National History Museum, adding: “I learned more there than I ever did in school.”
While traditional education wasn’t for her, Moray explained how she spent every summer in summer schools, before attending university in Brighton “in preparation for what I’m doing now.”
Like many people, Moray struggled during lockdown. But it was during this time that her fashion line, Moray Luke, took off from her mother’s kitchen table. After watching several documentaries on fast fashion, and having shopped in vintage stores most of her life, Moray knew she wanted to incorporate “slow” fashion into her line.
It was for this reason that she settled on using fish leather, as it would otherwise be wasted.
“Traceability is really important to me,” Moray explained. “It’s organic Scottish salmon skin and the bags are handmade in Somerset, so I’m trying to be as sustainable as possible.”
Taking a gamble on herself and her dream one evening, Moray emailed the head of UKFT – the largest British fashion and textile network – with a photo of her bags.
“It was one of those key moments for me,” she recalled “I didn’t expect anyone to reply but he emailed me within a day and started coaching me.”
From there it has been nonstop for Moray.
On achieving her dream, she said: “It’s magic, to be honest. If I even talk about it I’ll start crying, because it has been such a rough time and I can’t believe my dream actually happened.”
Moray credits her mum for supporting her through the process.
“My mum helped me and wrote my business plan as well, because she knows it’s the only thing I can and want to do in life.
“It’s the coolest thing, the people who make my dust bags have worked on Game of Thrones and that is just the coolest thing I can ever say.”
Even with all the excitement of London and Paris Fashion Week, the ecodesigner shared that part of her heart and passion will always be in Wales.
“I’m so inspired by Romans and Celts, my dream would be to work with St Fagans one day.”
For now, she is looking forward to her first pop-up stores, including one at the Hay-on-Wye Festival.
“It’s going to be great, in amongst the mountains, I’m so excited,” she said. “There’s so much I hope to do in the future – the handbags are just the start.”