Fashion: The designer to wear now and love forever

“If I wear a special piece, suddenly I feel more confident - and that’s what I want to give to people, that sense of confidence.” Fashion designer Delphine Dubuisson, who recently relocated her life and label from London to Cambridgeshire, tells Velvet what makes her clothes tick

As told to Alice Ryan

Pictures by Francois Bresmal

"A piece can be quite showy - take the tasselled skirt from this collection - and still work everyday. If you put it with trainers and a roll neck you can dress it down but still look and feel special; that’s what I love.

"If I wear a special piece, suddenly I feel more confident - and that’s what I want to give to people, that sense of confidence. I want to make clothes which, whether you’re in your 20s or 60s, will still look good on you. Age shouldn’t be a restriction when it comes to fashion.

"My love of fashion comes from my grandmother. She used to own a shop in Liege, the city in Belgium where I’m from, and she made clothes for people - a lot of suits and blazers, very chic, very tailored. Every time I went to her house she’d be at the sewing machine and I’d be trying things on. . .

"I kind of fell in love with it and it became obvious that this was what I was going to do. The first item I wanted to make, though, was a pair of gloves. Obviously they are not easy to make, so it was a complete catastrophe!

"I’ve always wanted to have my own brand, but I knew I needed to get experience in order to do that. So even before uni I was doing internships, then I studied fashion in Liege, followed by a Masters in business at the London College of Contemporary Fashion.

"I got a job for a London brand, where I worked for two and a half years, then Covid happened. That was really the push for me to create my own collection, using fabric I had left over from trips I’d made to India, fabric I got from my grandmother. . .

"We set up the website and made a few sales, but it was when I held a sale at my house that I really realised people liked and wanted to buy my clothes. That made me think ‘Let’s keep going’. We are now on our fourth collection.

"Working for another brand you have to follow designer guidelines, but when it’s just for you, though it’s a bit scary, the freedom is amazing. It’s really the fabrics that inspire me. Starting with one in particular which catches my eye, I lay them around my workroom, then I start to see a skirt in this, a blouse in that. . . The shapes kind of become obvious to me.

"The environment I’m in inspires me too. When I see the evolution of my designs, from when I was in Belgium to now in the UK, I can see an Englishness developing - I love a good chequered suit, a crisp shirt.

"For me, it’s obvious that we shouldn’t compromise people or the planet for fashion, so I want to make everything as locally as possible. I design and pattern everything here in my studio and when it comes to grading - scaling the patterns into different sizes - I work with a lady in the north of the UK. I then either make the clothes myself or we work with a factory in North London. Even the photoshoot for our latest collection - shown on these pages - was done on my street in St Neots.

"We use European fabrics to limit transport; if we use cotton, it’s organic cotton. We also use a lot of deadstock, which prevents fabrics from going to waste.

"After Covid the workplace changed and it was easier for people, including my husband, to work from home. We’ve always wanted to be closer to nature and have a dog so, when the opportunity presented itself, we decided to have a look around. We just kind of fell in love with Cambridgeshire.

"Marvin, our greyhound [who appears on Velvet’s front cover this month], is a rescue from Dog’s Trust and he’s the sweetest dog ever; sadly he got diagnosed with a tumour, which is why he’s now on three legs.

"Running your own business is not always easy, but the ups are so much greater than the downs, it’s worth it. And if you never try, you’ll never know if it works or not.

"I want anyone that wears my clothes to feel great in them. My objective is not to have a huge company - I don’t want to be a Gucci. I want to keep it slow, keep it conscious; to be an ethical brand people come to and buy something they love."

See and shop the complete collection at delphinedubuisson.co.uk and follow @delphinedubuissonlondon for updates.