Yes bro happy to be doing this with you, please Introduce yourself and tell us about your journey into fashion design?

My name is Ismaël Silué and I'm the creator of Studio Silué, I’m a proud Londoner of mixed heritage my parents are from Cote d'Ivoire and France. I guess my introduction into the fashion industry was being a supplier of print designs to fashion companies across the world. We designed prints mainly for womenswear brands and sometimes interiors. I worked for a Studio In London for around 5 years and then spent a year in LA. After that I started my own consultancy but then covid brought an end to that, so I went to spend time in Côte d’ivoire as soon as their lockdown ended. Three months turned into three years and here we are 

I’ve always wanted to design. I just never felt I had the skills as I wasn't formally trained. But everything can be learned and I think when it comes down to it it was more of a confidence thing than a capability thing. I’ve always taken notes, references and compiled things that spoke to me me so when it came to creating my first pieces I had years of inspiration to dip into 

How would you describe your design aesthetic and what inspires you?

The studio SILUÉ design aesthetic is all about bringing traditional practices into a modern context. It's really about celebrating slow, hand dyed techniques and tying them with more modern creative direction. What interested me first was wax printing and when I met some hand dyers in Ivory Coast it really inspired me to explore this more.

I would say I'm inspired every day interacting and being around makers of all different things. I’m trying to bring back attention to slower techniques that really highlight quality and longevity.

My two creative hubs at the moment are London and Grand-Bassam so being around these two places, interacting with peers and just being surrounded by creative people in turn really makes you explore what you have to share. Whether it’s playing chess with a local, checking out old record sleeves or just walking down the beach with a notebook every experience contributes to the vision.

Can you walk us through your typical design process from concept to final product?

At the moment my creative process starts with studying different prints and techniques, whether it’s different stamps or exploring textile books. I'll also create mood boards based on all my research from different areas and put it all together in one place 

Once I’ve decided on the design I take it to a woodworker who carves the new stamp from wood and then we take it to my dyer. I normally get a few different size versions to see which works best 

With the batiker we go through and choose different colours, test different colorways and decide on what we feel is right for the collection

I also have meetings with my tailor to work on different patterns and discuss fits. I wanted to start small, do things well and slowly expand into different pieces. All of my production is in Ivory Coast at the moment so when I'm there I'm really in creation mode.  

To save them time we mock up some samples at the tailor with some plain fabric and then when everything's finished I drop off all the fabric at the tailors and we start the production run

What's the most challenging aspect of designing a collection?

Most challenging thing throughout the whole process was actually just finding the right people to work with. Now I'm at a place where I really trust the people I'm working with and I'm sure that the quality is there every time, so creating new relationships has been the hardest part of the whole process. Especially in a place where you can't just go on Google to research factories, you have to find people through word of mouth and just keep persisting. I went to at least 30 tailors before I found my guy. Ironically we actually met in a local marquee  we got chatting and after having made the sample I realised the person I've been looking for I've been living around the corner from me the whole time

There's a lot of trial and error when it comes to creating garments, the design process is really exciting but it's the quality control that is probably one of the difficult challenges and having people that you really trust is how you get through those challenges

How do you incorporate sustainability into your design process?

So with regards to sustainability it was always something I was thinking quite a lot about and when it comes to the fabrics all of them are sourced from local factories near Abidjan and they’re rejected due to miss print and other imperfections so again it's really about local knowledge and knowing the right people to get everything from because it goes quite quickly. Once that stuff runs out it's really hard to get so it really makes you keep in touch with local traders and sustain relationships 

How do you collaborate with other professionals in the industry?

Collaboration is probably one of the aspects I love most about the creative process. I think once you start a brand you start to realise that you really can't do everything by yourself and having the right people around you supporting you is a privilege. It took probably years of research to get to a point where I could produce garments consistently and that journey of getting to know people starting with working relationships and then personal relationships has been really important to me. The people I work with and Ivory Coast I would call them personal friends and building those relationships has been one of the most fun parts of creating the brand

What are your goals for the future of your brand or career?

In terms of goals I just want to establish myself as an emerging brand in the space and have the opportunity to collaborate with different people whether it be either designers, musicians, photographers just continuing that creative journey. The process is the most fun part so just being able to be designing and sharing is a privilege place to be in. Appreciate you coming through man, big love