Lou Dalton

Lou Dalton is an English menswear fashion designer based in London. She has launched her own brand and collaborated with other fashion lines.

Early life

Dalton was born in Shropshire and grew up in Hodnet. She left school at age 16 and worked as an apprentice to a tailor making shooting garments. She studied for a BTEC National Diploma in Textiles at Stafford Art College, followed by an HND in Design & Fabrication at Berkshire Higher Education College, before being accepted to study menswear at the Royal College of Art. It was here she met and first collaborated with womenswear designer Holly Fulton. She worked at Charlie Allen as a design assistant while studying for a Master's degree in Fashion Menswear at the Royal College of Art, graduating in 1998. Her final year show drew upon her Shropshire roots, referencing Edward the Confessor and Roger de Montgomery, who were two key landowners in the medieval village of Odenet, that became modern day Hodnet.

Career

After graduation, she worked for fashion designer turned biofabrication pioneer and now TED Fellow Suzanne Lee, as a research and design assistant before moving on to design roles at Full Circle, Red or Dead, Cruciani knitwear, Stone Island, Iceberg and Japanese brand United Arrows. Following mentoring from fashion journalists Sarah Mower and Tim Blanks, she launched her eponymous brand in 2005. She is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Royal College of Art in London on the Menswear and Accessory Design courses and shows her collections during London Fashion Week: Mens.

Collaborations

In 2015, Dalton created a short fashion film with Italian label Cerruti. Directed by Nick Leary, the black-and-white film was shot at the Lanificio Cerruti textile mill in Biella, Italy, and at Dalton’s studio in London. It depicts Nino Cerruti's work with wool, and illustrates the bonds between Nino Cerruti, the mill and Dalton.

In January 2016 she collaborated with Jaeger on a men‘s collection for autumn 2016. The collection was shown during the London Fashion Week: Men's shows and was inspired by items from Jaeger’s archives, including some that Ernest Shackleton wore for his famous 1914 Endurance Expedition to Antarctica. The partnership continued for a second spring 2017 collection in June 2016.

She collaborated with British high street retailer River Island on a 13-piece menswear collection in 2016.

In January 2016, Dalton collaborated with British knitwear brand John Smedley on a collection for fall 2016 that included a sweater featuring a topographical map that was promoted by Dalton's friend and actor Russell Tovey. The partnership was still in place as of the fall 2018 shows in London in January 2018.

Personal life

Dalton splits her time between a townhouse in Clerkenwell, London and Baku, Azerbaijan, where her husband Justin Haigh is an oil advisor for the Azerbaijan government and the Azeri autonomous republic of Nakhchivan. A keen musician, Dalton plays the accordion and harmonica, and is a regular guest DJ at Vauxhall disco-inspired club night, Horse Meat Disco.