Leather & Saddlery: A Conversation with Tamzin Lillywhite
Tamzin Lillywhite
A Westminster fashion graduate who fell for leather and never put it down, from a young East London label to the costume workshops of Wicked and Wuthering Heights.
Why this conversation
I first spoke to Tamzin when she was a young leather accessories designer working out of East London, hand-stitching pieces with saddlery techniques and watching her pony ear bridle start to turn up on exactly the right necks. What I love about returning to that conversation now is what it became. The same hands that cut and finished those early bridles went on to build corsets, masks and gloves for some of the biggest films of the decade. The instinct was always there in the work: something hard, powerful, and still entirely sexy. This is a story about following a material until it takes you somewhere you never planned to go.
Hard, Powerful, Sexy
Tamzin studied fashion design at the University of Westminster. She specialised in womenswear, but the work always carried an androgynous edge. She was drawn to design that felt hard and powerful while staying unmistakably sensual, and she found the seed of it on placement at Preen, where she fell for the way leather and chiffon could build a strong silhouette and a softer, wholly feminine one at the same time. Bordelle gave her a close look inside a designer lingerie house. A stretch with Carianne Moore put her in a couture environment, learning traditional millinery techniques and translating them into jewellery. Then leatherwork found her, and that was the one. A medium she loved, and the start of her own accessories label.
From the original conversation
Your greatest inspirations or influences?
The greatest inspiration to this point was discovering leatherwork. I really found a media that I love, and it has led me on to have my own leather accessories label.
Who is the girl you have in mind when you design?
I don't ever really have a specific woman in mind. I always design for a powerful woman. I love androgynous womenswear, and I hope that it comes across in my accessories as well.
Favourite websites, blogs, publications?
I love the Wondermode blog, and of course Style Bubble, and Ninu Nina. As for publications, I have a lot of favourites: Wonderland, LOVE, Volt, 10, Numero, and countless others. I have an endless amount of magazines.
Fashion icons, in your opinion?
I really like Marion Cotillard's style, and Christina Hendricks at the moment. I would also love to see my accessories on Jessie J.
I always design for a powerful woman.Tamzin Lillywhite
From Bridle to Blockbuster
The label did what good work does. Her pieces are hand-crafted using traditional saddlery techniques, built from the highest quality English leathers and finished with solid brass fastenings, and they began to travel. They were styled for shoots with Ellie Goulding, Rita Ora and Lindsay Lohan, ran through countless fashion titles, and her Pony Ear Bridle was worn by Cara Delevingne. Then the craft itself opened a bigger door. Tamzin moved into film, working as head of costume props and craft on Wicked, with further credits across Black Widow, Murder on the Orient Express and Aladdin.
The pieces only grew more specific. She crafted the leather corset worn by Margot Robbie in Wuthering Heights, working closely with costume designer Jacqueline Durran. For Hamnet she made intricate accessories and props, among them plague doctor masks and falconry gloves. Alongside the screen work she co-founded the artisanal brand HUNG Studios and has taught at Central Saint Martins, passing the saddlery on. The through-line is the leather, and the discipline of really knowing how to work it.
I really found a media that I love.Tamzin Lillywhite
The young designer who fell for leather kept her hands on it, and followed it all the way to the screen. The brief never really changed. Hard, powerful, sexy, and made to last.
@tamzinlillywhite · tamzinlillywhite.co.uk
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