Theneckerchief
Textile designer Iain MacDonald has got bright ideas, a touch of animal magic and fabulous prints all tied up for his latest collection of accessories on his Sleekit website
KYLIE Jenner’s make-up is always on point. She of the flawless base and perfectly groomed eyebrows leaves us mere mortals in the shade.
Here’s some great products to try to recreate her look. Estee Lauder Double Wear foundation, £31 at esteelauder.co.uk
For high coverage like Kylie, this is the best. It has a stay all day formula and a velvet finish. TAKE the saturated colours of Hermes silk squares. Add the dark edge of Scots design firm Timorous Beasties’s creepy wallpapers. Tie it in a huge bow and wear it on top of a bonkers printed suit.
That is the new scarf collection from Sleekit, the brainchild of Glasgow-based textile designer Iain MacDonald.
Wasps eating apples, a dusky tiger peeping out of dense foliage. Frogs, flamingos and cockatoos … Iain leaps across continents and species to find the visual inspiration for his ornate fabrics.
And in the age of computerdesigned everything, his hand-crafted designs stand out. They impressed in Topshop so much that he designed a jungle print for their summer collection.
He explained: “Not a lot of people draw by hand any more.
“It’s all graphics and mirrors and computerised. I never realised the industry was crying out for people to hand draw and paint.”
Iain did not grow up desperate to put languid pink flamingos on silk scarves. When he went to Gray’s School of Art, in Aberdeen, he was not sure where, exactly, he would end up, although graphic design did appeal. Then he was talent-spotted.
“The fashion lecturers found me,” he recalled. “I was in the studio designing some book, hand drawing, when they started telling me about painting fabric for print. I had no idea what that was.
A fortnight’s trial later, he was hooked. “I loved seeing my art turned into fabrics.”
Chris left Gray’s in 2012 and headed to London where he worked with fashion giants such as Alexander McQueen. He said: “I thought that’s what I was going to do, be a textile designer for a company. And I enjoyed it but I kept thinking, I want to be back home, doing it myself, creating my own products.”
His first company made clothes with his fabrics. Since then, he has decided to focus on a collection of accessories, sold via his website.
Turns out that silk squares are the perfect place for him to set off his visual fireworks.
He said: “They are like a canvas. That’s what I love about them.
“For a new business, it made more sense to start with accessories. I can grow from that. There’s more freedom there.” His new collection has 12 square scarves and four smaller neckerchiefs, featuring his signature designs. They start at £50 for a neckerchief and go up to £215 for a giant square.
This sounds steep but they are big enough to cover a sofa.
Iain’s next stage is to find new stockists and persuade retailers such as Liberty in London they need crazy frogs in their mix.
He added: “People look at my scarves and can’t believe I painted them. They are really shocked. But they love that idea as well.” ● www.sleekitstore.com