From Porcelain To Pants: Erin Lightfoot’s Foray Into Fabric and Fashion

Well-known and loved for her bold, geometric designs, Erin Lightfoot creates coveted ceramic jewellery with her husband, multi-disciplinary creative Tang Oudomvilay and their small team of artisans. While the love for her work in ceramics has taken Erin far, the vision to develop her own clothing line using her unique print designs has always lingered at the back of her mind, ever since she finished her fashion degree almost 14 years ago. So in 2021 Erin decided to try her well-skilled hand at fashion, with a capsule collection created alongside fashion consultant and educator Thuy Nyugen of Fashion360. The stunning range of garments featured Erin’s recognisable prints on high-quality silk, crafted into refined silhouettes with the fit and shaping that Thuy is famous for.

Last year Erin turned her focus back to jewellery, also cutting back the vase production to simplify and find a better balance between production, design, marketing and general business operations (consider yourself lucky if you have one of Erin’s original iconic vases!). With a limited amount of the beautiful silk fabric remaining, Erin has decided to sell the remnants, to see what sewists can create with it. “It has been such a delightful experience so far to hear about the plans people have for interpreting the fabric in their own style,” she says. Erin chats creativity, collaborations and art vs design.

IMAGES COURTESY OF ERIN LIGHTFOOT

You originally studied fashion and textile design – can you tell us about that?

Sure can, thanks for asking! I was one of those uni students who didn’t quite know what to do but had an inkling I wanted to do something creative. Fashion felt interesting and even though there was no obvious career path, the appeal was the idea of creating a body of work by the end of it, as I really wanted to shape my creativity into something tangible.

Through this course, I found the start of my ‘creative voice’ in designing patterns for fabrics. These patterns were the birth place for my self-titled ceramics and jewellery label. 

Were you always interested in design?

Yes, basically as soon as I grasped the concept, my interest burgeoned. I grew up in a creative family with a very creative mother (she is an artist). I was always familiar with and interested in creativity but my interest in design came with age.

I love that the audience is essential in design projects. When you are designing something for someone else to use, you need to be thinking about them and their experience. If I compare this to the concept of art, I think art is more about self-expression or expressing an idea. One is not better than the other and both make the world a better place but design resonates with me more. My work includes self-expression but is shaped with the end user in mind. 

When you are designing something for someone else to use, you need to be thinking about them and their experience. If I compare this to the concept of art, I think art is more about self-expression or expressing an idea.

What made you choose ceramics as your creative outlet?

I was looking for a material that was interesting and had a lot of integrity to it. I can remember being fresh out of uni and wanting to do something with my prints but not being sure what to do with them. Partly because my Mum had a ceramic studio and partly inspired by a ceramic piece I saw in a boutique, I had the idea to combine my prints with ceramics and that felt exciting to me. The combination seemed fresh and interesting and the end product would have the quality that spoke to me.

You launched your fashion range alongside Thuy Nguyen of Fashion360 – why were you drawn to creating apparel?

The opportunity arose and I jumped at the chance to work with Thuy. I think my patterns really lend themselves to fabric but I had been absorbed in running a ceramic studio for so many years that I didn’t have the head-space to try new canvases. When Thuy reached out with the idea, I said an eager yes. Partly because I love collaborating and partly because I’d always wanted to explore using my prints in other ways. 

What was it like working with textiles instead of ceramic? Any pros or cons?

I loved it! Pros were working in a new material on a bigger canvas and seeing my prints come to life in such a beautiful way. I absolutely loved the process of collaborating and sharing design ideas with Thuy. 

Cons were that it’s very challenging to create a selling environment for garments. Selling online takes a big marketing strategy and we wanted customers to have the opportunity to try the pieces on which meant doing pop-up stores. These are fun but take a lot of marketing and time being in-store. In the end I found this too time-hungry to manage alongside running a studio and raising two small children.  

Why did you choose silk to work with?

I personally love wearing natural fibres. I had worked with silk crepe-de-chine before and knew that my prints translated well with this type of fabric. I love the drape, the feel and lightweight nature.

You’ve now graciously opened up sales of the end-of-line fabrics, what do you hope to see makers create from it?

This is honestly very exciting to me to see how makers inject their own ideas and personality in to garments. It’s a quiet form of collaboration. I love it.