Country Couture

Northumbrian fashion designer Meg Fletcher is passionate about the North East. Living North take a look at her new collection, Home Ground, which Meg has just launched at Alnwick Castle, and which takes inspiration from her rural surroundings.

Home Ground is Meg's first solo show since graduating with a First Class degree from the fashion design course at Northumbria University. She lives in the hamlet of Edlingam, near Alnwick, and is determined to prove that creative fashion can thrive in our region.

'I've been in the North my whole life', she tells us, 'and even though I've done a lot of travelling, and spent time in London, there's nothing that compares to working up here and it's where my creativity thrives.' Meg recalls designing wedding dresses for friends in school, and how passion for theatre led her to sewing and costume design.

Meg likes to take a personal perspective when sparking ideas for her creations. 'My graduate work was titled A Body In The Act Of Becoming' and it explored the female form,' she says. 'That reflected my own perspective on my own body too'.

Building upon the jersey bodysuit dress from that collection, Meg produced three new looks this year as part of a capsule collection exploring the art of draping with soft jersey, and adding jewellery details with fresh water pearls. 'This new collection [Home Ground] is me celebrating the North and the creativity here, and the other artists here. It's my response to why U've chosen to stay here, which was a big decision after I graduated, but my heart really wasn't set on moving to London. Obviously, there's a lot of opportunity down there for what I'm trying to do, but I also think it's very overcrowded, and it's very difficult to be seen through the noise. I chose to stay here, and I'm going to shout from up here. That's why this collection's core concept is celebrating the North, and proving (hopefully) that I can do it from here, as the industry is expanding. Especially with things moving online more, it doesn't matter where you're based, but the peace of mind I get from being based up here is important to me.'

Home Ground features 10 looks, each strongly representing Meg's view of Northumberland, and her love for it. 'The concept has that deep love running through it. It's instinctive designing that I'm doing, and clear deisgn imagery that's come from my graduate design work as well.' she tells us. 'I'm starting to have themes that people can recognise my work through. There's some very obvious iconography throughout that makes it very "country". I try not to take too much direct design