Camille Lorigo's Glasgow 10

25 November 2008

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Glasgow has always been a stylish city but thanks to the work of Camille Lorigo, founder of Che Camille, and her project, The Glasgow 10, it is becoming more of a Fashion Mecca. With great designers and a classy workshop and showroom available at the heart of the city it will soon be giving New York and Paris a run for it's money in the style stakes.

Camille began to work on the project just over two years ago after noticing a lack of locally made items. She says: "You go to other cities and there's boutiques and you see all the local designers and you can actually go in and meet some of them and get stuff that you can never see anywhere else. I thought that Scotland had so much talent but there was really no outlet."

So she started her Che Camille warehouse with other artists. Instead of simply taking the clothes from them and selling them, the warehouse was more about building relationships and getting the word ou tthere about designers. Camille also wanted to express how important it was for people to buy things locally.

"Ok you might not have the same prices as say, Primark but it's stuff that lasts a bit longer, fits a bit better, less trendy and gone the next season." She explains

The Glasgow 10 is a resident team of designers who will work in a 35,00 square feet loft space, with their pieces available to the public. Camille says of the designers: "What I'm looking for in them is they want to have experience, they've got the good design quality, technically they need to be able to make the stuff to a really high product, not just by machinists, the design needs to be good and they need to be really determined to actually put the work in, because what we're trying to say is, we do a lot of work bringing you customers, and helping you build a brand but you need to be behind it as well."

"I've got four in place then I've got other people doing guest collections in store. Those people may end up joining the Glasgow 10 but at the moment it's a lesser commitment from them. At the moment we've got people who do, bags, jewellery, made to measure jeans, jackets and dresses and hats. I've got a shoe designer but she's in London but I love her so she's gonna come up and do kind of a month here to sell things then come back for orders and things. We'll probably take phone ones and just have more residencies for a month and that way we'll bring people in and the locals can build bridges with them as well."

The final ten should be in place by the Summer but those already involved are working hard until then as the store in the Argyll Arcade on Buchanan Street opened on Saturday.

"It's really up and coming, with sky lights, but it's at the top of an old building so it's like a secret! We've got a workshop joining, there's a gate between the workshop and the shop so you can actually see them working while your shopping. I've told them, 'No music too loud! Watch you're language!' Because it's real, you can see who's behind it instead of them hiding behind a screen and they enjoy it too, getting to work together, because design is quite solitary sometimes."

The project is also supported by Scotlans With Style which has been a big boost. Camille explains: "It's a huge project to get someone to believe in it and get behind it cause it's not really been done before so you have to show people the business side of it but we do have support from Scotland with Style and They support the local design and the local economy. They've been wonderful, it's nice to have someone official behind you and saying we appreciate what you're doing."

Camille feels that is important for designers in Scotland to have somewhere to go, so that they are not lost to London.

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