TOP MAN OF FASHION
Last updated 11:37, Tuesday, 13 May 2008
Whether it’s a short sleeve, casual, checked or smart shirt, there’s a chance you have seen, and possibly worn, one of Damian Gadsby’s creations.
As a shirt designer for Topman, the 31-year-old from Carlisle has built up a successful career in a notoriously tough industry, which has seen him create designs for leading fashion names including United Colors of Benetton and Hugo Boss.
It was while studying in Carlisle that Damian became interested in a career in fashion.
The former Newman School pupil started out studying art and design at Lakes College in Workington before moving on to a National Diploma in art and design at Carlisle College.
He told the News & Star: “I decided to specialise in fashion in my second year. I found it really interesting and it gave me the chance to be creative.”
Gaining a place on the fashion degree course at Kingston University in London was the next step up into the fashion world.
This helped him to build on his knowledge of the design process. To develop creative style Damian gained experience in designing womenswear, creating designs he describes as being sophisticated, street and edgy.
And despite being in London Damian was keen to keep his ties with Cumbria, using fabric from Linton Tweed in Carlisle in his third year collection.
“The degree has a good reputation in the fashion industry and was focused on getting us into the market,” he said. “I wanted to go back to my roots and use local fabric in my projects.”
This experience helped Damian secure his first job working for United Colors of Benetton, a role that involved him moving to Treviso in Italy.
He said: “I always wanted to move abroad. When I was at university we were told to start off abroad because of the opportunities available.”
After working in womenswear for three months he moved over to menswear and has never looked back.
“It is quite a tough, challenging and competitive industry,” said Damian. “It can be cut-throat so you need to be sharp and on your toes.”
A move to consultancy company Mauro Taliani saw him living and working in Florence for six and a half years.
He said: “It was a smaller company and Florence is a great city full of culture. It was more of a hands on role because the company was smaller.”
The company design for top names including Hugo Boss, Calvin Klein and Jean Paul Gaultier, and the highlight of Damian’s time with them was designing a McLaren outfit for Hugo Boss, a partner of the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team.
Damian was invited to McLaren’s head office in Woking where he met the racing car chief Ron Dennis.
Damian designed polo shirts, shoes and caps in the team’s silver and red colours.
“It was an amazing experience,” he said. “The outfits were very engineered and they had to be fire resistant.”
But after six and a half years working in Florence Damian decided it was time to move back to the UK and the wide experience he gained in Italy helped him get a job with the in-house design team at Topman, based in Oxford Circus in London.
He is now responsible for the team designing men’s shirts for the company and works with buyers and merchandisers for the main collection to create new styles and trends.
He said: “We come up with trends which may be influenced by the season, what music bands and celebrities are wearing.
“With trends you never know what is around the corner
“I am always under pressure. It is a fast moving industry and trends are constantly moving.”
Damian is also involved in Man, the partnership between Topman and Fashion East, which makes more individual, design-led garments.
Damian, who lives in Wembley, said: “The designs are more extreme than the usual ranges. They are a step ahead.
“Menswear is a huge industry now. Men are more considerate about what they wear and how they look and styles are becoming more defined and edgy.”
As for this summer, Damian says new styles include 1980s inspired clothing and Topman has a Marbella range, including tracksuits, tops with shirts and skinny fit jeans.
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