Beautiful and Sexy ladies

DESIGN GURU SAMANTHA CAMERON

“As a teenager, I was desperate to be a fashion designer,” says Samantha Cameron, creative director of the luxury-goods firm Smythson. “I would never have dreamt I’d end up doing this.” Her path to the top has been somewhat organic – she started out doing fine art, then set up a design consultancy, doing “a bit of interiors, a bit of furniture design: I used to love doing kitchens”.

Then, 10 years ago, she found herself at Smythson, ready to inject an eye for fashion into the brand’s line of stationery and accessories. “I don’t think it necessarily matters what you are trained in,” she says. “If you experience things visually and have a sense of design, you can move between different disciplines. I think letting things happen and being brave about opportunities is definitely a positive thing.”

But then, design runs in the family – her mother used to have a jewellery business and now runs the furniture company Oka. “My mum has always worked,” Cameron says, “and she has been incredibly encouraging.”

She has a personal life to rival the most frantic mother – her husband is leader of the Conservative party, and she has three children under six, one of whom has cerebral palsy. “Having a family is a huge challenge,” she says. “I want to be a great mum and be really good at my job, but it’s difficult to strike a balance. You have to set yourself rules, and you can’t keep everyone happy all the time. I am strict about the hours I work [she does a four-day week] and how much I’m prepared to travel. I’ve become very good at compartmentalising my life.”

Rules and order are helpful in the job, too. “I think that sometimes the best designs come out of a certain amount of constraint,” she explains. “A blank page can often be more difficult to design out of than a box you can bounce ideas off. Design is about solving problems and working with a brief.”

Related Posts:

• Throw Out That Bag!
• SHOPPING PIONEER ALANNAH WESTON
• TALENT SPOTTER LULU KENNEDY
• HIGH STREET PRIESTESS KATE BOSTOCK
• INTERNET QUEEN NATALIE MASSENET
• BRAND MAKER ANYA HINDMARCH
• What are the basic clothing material properties
• What clothing materials
• The color of clothing is what
• What is the costume design

Leave a Reply