Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Alexandra Wall. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Alexandra thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Some of the most interesting parts of our journey emerge from areas where we believe something that most people in our industry do not – do you have something like that?
The myth that to be creative means you are born with natural talent.
I don’t believe this to be true, creativity can 100% be taught. Creative thinking can be nurtured, visual communication can be practiced and above all, it can start from a point not often associated with the free-spiritedness of artistry: logic.
At Digital Pattern Library, I pride myself on breaking down the otherwise overwhelming creative process into bitesize and digestible action steps. My students develop a creative process and unique as they are through a variety of learning styles to suit any personality. From visual and audio learning in online workshops that teach high-value skills in as little as 10-minutes to PDF documents catered for those who like reading as their way of absorbing information. My membership, The DPL Atelier, provides bespoke support and direct access to me for any fashion-related question alongside a community of like-minded people who provide both accountability and the power of shared knowledge and experiences.
Take our popular 3 Day Fashion Design Challenge: So often I am met with “I’m not creative enough to design my own clothes” and yet through step-by-step guidance and easy to follow online masterclasses I help unleash a variety of unsure, unconfident sewists’ true potential. Think of it like a beginner-friendly ;Project Runway’. Day one shares a creative brief which we collectively answer and helps the community in gathering research and inspiration images.
For additional support, I answer the creative brief and partake in the challenge real-time alongside all students so they can learn from my own process before tailoring it to theirs. Our first workshop is all about “How to Answer the Creative Brief” where I share tips and tricks to get the most from their inspiration. The design brief is simply serves as a springboard for people to develop original ideas.
Day two refines our imagery into a mood board before the powerful workshop of “Translating Ideas into Garment Design” takes place. Connecting the dots between texture, colour and silhouette of research and how this applies to unique fashion concepts always leaves an a-ha moment or two to be discovered.
No artistic skill is required at any point, nor are students expected to make physical garments. Simply a pencil, piece of paper and internet access is needed to gain the most from this experience.
We complete the challenge with a simple but powerful design exercise that squeezes all the potential from the most basic idea. Following which I encourage my students to rewatch the workshops in their own time before submitting their final design to be in with a chance of winning prizes.
Ultimately, this is one example of the simplified process I provide my audience to build their confidence across creativity, clothing and self esteem. When we start to understand theory and logic before analysing both our wardrobes AND lifestyle, the creative techniques in which to develop them can follow. I help people build their dream wardrobe that’s not only designed by them, but made by them and, more importantly, worn by them with joy.
There is no such thing as not being creative, it’s just about knowing the first step to take and the friendly guidance to get there.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I have always worked in fashion, though do not profess to be someone who was born to do it, nor did I find myself thumbing through the pages of Vogue at a young age. My journey towards unlocking the power clothes can have on our confidence came from a scoliosis diagnosis at the age of 16.
Slowly, I began to understand the importance balancing our unique proportions can have on the result. The illusion we, as designers, can create by controlling the eye to focus on certain areas and minimise others, the transformation wearing complimentary colours for your individual undertones and the results that silhouette can achieve to improve your self-confidence and convey who you are through the medium of fashion. It’s an addictive superpower!
I am formally trained in luxury womenswear, and, following a questionable stint in the London fashion industry that highlighted morals and ethics I couldn’t align with, I decided to move home to Wales and establish my own career path. I set up Xandra Jane Design, my B2B consultancy and design business that helps clients launch their own fashion brands through design, tech pack and consultation services, ensuring they work with factories they can trust and approach the process in a professional manner. This was shortly followed by establishing Digital Pattern Library – my B2C online educational platform for home sewists.
Gatekeeping the secrets I had picked up along the way felt like a disservice. Growing up, my Mum was unfortunately wheelchair bound due to MS, and I kept reflecting on the thought that I wish I could have shared my knowledge with her to see her confidence blossom, how happy that could have made her to feel great in the clothes she wore that so often are not mass-produced for the needs people have. The asymmetries of my own body with the fact none of us have cookie-cutter physiques and all of us have unique lifestyle requirements that our wardrobes must compliment… However cliché this may sound, I truly believe empowering people to feel confident and happy in the clothes they wear can change the world. Confident, happy people make for a kinder planet – and with that thought driving me forward, I decided to share everything I knew for an incredibly affordable price.
No £9,000.00 a year university course, no endless unpaid internships, the elusiveness and exclusiveness of the fashion industry is something I’ve tried to abolish and make accessible for my audience. As a white British female, I am hyper-aware of the privileges I’ve experience allowing me to develop the skills in this industry, I feel part of my duty is to pass it on. I am most proud of the safe online space I’ve created for my community to express themselves through fashion without judgement. The creative process is experimentative and personal style can always evolve and change, the creative community I’ve fostered is the warmest, most welcoming place I could have ever wished for, we’ve truly built authentic friendships and a hub of shared knowledge and inspiration.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I found myself in London at a crossroads, I had experienced an illegal placement working for a luxury streetwear brand that only compensated me for my travel expenses for the best part of a year. I was promised a job and as a naïve fresh-faced designer, I stuck it out for as long as I could acting as their studio manager, with my own team underneath me, managing their London atelier and liaising with their manufacturers in Bali. I know, how stupid could I have been! My 30-something self would love to talk to my 20-something self, but the 16-hour days, and at times, 7-day weeks, swallowed me whole. The fast pace and empty promises kept the time flying by until I woke up one day and realised the dead end path I’d travelled.
I secured another role, but it felt too late. My choice was to continue in an industry that failed to value it’s workers in the UK, let alone the thought of how it could potentially treat garment workers elsewhere and that really contributed to a negative environmental impact. I could return home to the not-so-fashion-forward city of Cardiff, or stick it out in London with every possibility of being chewed up, spat out and part of the problem.
So, with the very minimal amount of money I had left, I moved back home and soon after met my partner who is a farmer.
From the London fashion circuit to a Welsh farm felt like a pretty big pivot.
Fast forward 8 years and my transferrable creative skills have supported my partner’s business through managing his marketing channels, we run annual events and are currently building our own home. We built a custom studio from which I run my fashion businesses, having continued to keep my foot in the door submitting work for the likes of Calvin Klein – and I have revisited my childhood passion of horse riding. The lifestyle balance I have gained from taking the (quite frankly, terrifying) step of removing myself from an industry I was so sure I wanted to be part of – I honestly couldn’t be happier.
I have carved my own path into the fashion landscape that celebrates the ethics and morals I feel so strongly about, I don’t need to work 16-hour days for poor compensation and ultimately, with cost of living differences between the two places, I have a quality of life I doubt I would have ever achieved if I had stayed in the big smoke.
With great risk comes great reward and that single pivot has shaped my future. My partner and I continue to develop our retrospective businesses and push for decisions that propel us forward. I have not compromised on my creative profession, I’ve simply aligned it to work for me, my family and future.
Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.
Prior to Digital Pattern Library, I had embarked on my own luxury streetwear brand, Xandra Jane. This garnered a lot of award recognition for my efforts within sustainable fashion as I had sold each item with something I coined “Journey Cards”.
These were essentially like swing tickets that detailed the entire process from concept to creation hoping to reconnect my customer to their clothing. The premise was to try and educate the reason behind why fast fashion clothing was so detrimental at it’s cheap price point. My transparent supply chain detailed everyone, and I mean everyone. From finding out the name of the farmer who grew the crop to the factory management and even my interns. I detailed who designed the garment (myself), who constructed the garment, who sewed the labels into the garment.
Whilst this helped propel the brand forward with a clear USP, it soon became clear how difficult maintaining this level of tracking became when scale of production increased. I also felt like I couldn’t guarantee the Journey Cards were being read and however sustainable, ethical or slow I was trying to be, hurdles kept popping up the more the brand evolved. So, I decided to charge fast fashion prices for the same luxury design with one catch, my customer had to make it themselves.
Digital sewing patterns and instructions were born as an enterprise underneath my RTW brand which was met with surprising success. I had no previous experience with the sewing pattern industry and many lessons were learnt along the way, one of which understandably being the change in audience demographic.
But taking my businesses entirely online reduced my carbon footprint through abolishing postal orders, minimised deadstock, allowed my customer to not only customise the design to their preference through their own fabric choice and colour, but the made to order model encourage sentimentality and an appreciation for the work required to construct just one garment. I believe this also extends the lifecycle of each piece whilst reducing cost-per-wear for the consumer as they are more inclined to reach for a piece they have an emotional connection to, that is made to fit their unique figure, than a fast-fashion item that soon elapses the trend time window.
Naturally, my digital sewing patterns progressed into online tuition, a fashion-focussed membership and I eventually moved away from ready to wear entirely. I haven’t looked back.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.digitalpatternlibrary.com / www.xandrajanedesign.com
- Instagram: @digitalpatternlibrary / @xandrajanedesign
- Facebook: @digitalpatternlibrary / @xandrajanedesign
- Youtube: @digitalpatternlibrary
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/show/4OIihQkoq0gkbP4mK8vkYb?si=caf7d92ae4e74560
Image Credits