HAND FRAMED FASHION
...for shoppers who can find their way beyond the High Street, there are private fashion treasures to be found...

As the consumer society becomes evermore discerning and demanding, more and more women want beautifully crafted hand made clothes, to enhance and express their individual style. But there are only a limited number of independent designer labels truly meeting this demand. Even fewer create and hand frame their own fabrics.


One of such is Marie Loney. Her loft studio in the bustling East London area of Old Street, is alive with a subtle vibrancy of colours and fabrics. The space is filled with shelves of fabulous yarns, rails of magically fluid garments, and scattered with her beautiful and unique fabrics.

She grew up with a love of colour and texture, light and movement. So it was no surprise that in 1989 she headed to Nottingham University to study fashion and textiles, graduating in 1992 with an honours degree in knitwear design.Then, over the next seven years, she honed her skills in production management and design consultancy at Whistles and Anna Scholtz. By 1999 she was ready to start her own label, and began building "Marie Loney Couture Hand Framed Knitwear". Now, alongside her couture designs, she also produces each year two limited editions ranging from ready to wear separates, dresses and accessories and selling to independent stores and private clients in London, New York, Tokyo, Paris and Milan.

Marie's special combination of fabric textures and garment designs goes to the heart of desirable fashion, and she has the unusual skill of producing clothes that are dramatic, exciting and sensual whilst also seemingly simple, understated and wearable. This reflects her underlying sense of the way clothes must feel on the body: "I want lots of movement in the fabrics", she says, "so that the garment is like an outer skin. It's the way the fabric feels on the body - you walk and feel differently - it transforms you, brings you out, and gives you a different poise, more yourself".


Despite the luxury and delight of her garments, they are still easy to wear and to maintain, and surprisingly affordable. Some are light and sheer in a fine feather-like gauge, whilst others are chunkier with more weight, and all show beautiful detail and finish. They are often multi functional, trans-seasonal, and can be layered, providing a flexibility and versatility which clients appreciate. Seeing her designs it is easy to understand Marie's belief that "the energy of the wearer merges with the energy of the fabric and design, there must be a harmony between them". Her designs are driven by these feelings, and together with personal service and a high level of customer care. It is no surprise to find her label going from strength to strength.

At the moment, Marie Loney is finalising her Spring -Summer 2003 collection, which she will be exhibiting at The London Fashion Week in September. Early October sees her in Paris, and next year she takes her work to Tokyo.

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