November 12th 2020

This is the fourteenth in a series of interviews with creative and inspiring people, chatting all things human and what it takes to ‘be’. The aim being not only to promote their work but to uncover their journey, learn about technique and pass on tips and advice. I’m hoping these conversations will inspire others to be unique, take risks and understand the beauty in failure …… We have but one life, lets make it creative !

Although there was a slight disruption to the sound during the conversation it’s fair to say the connection wasn’t lost between the two of us. With a passion for hand made clothing and a purpose driven business model Sarah is an exciting and thoughtful designer. Humbly driven and ambitious her plan to open up the conversation surrounding social issues is well under way. I felt in harmony with her thought process and vision with huge respect and admiration.

A London College of Fashion graduate and Saville Row trained Sarah Hollebon is a public speaker, mental health activist and has deservedly been awarded a two year residency in Canaby Street though a LCF and Shaftesbury Real Estate incentive.

Standing before a panel of judges Sarah presented her final collection and business plan. Each garment representing a mental health condition. With a capsule collection of 5 garments which has slowly grown to 8 Sarah interviews individuals who are living with various mental health issues, these interviews go onto inspire sharply cut tailored garments with fine detail and strong silhouette.

Sarah was a delight to talk to with helpful tips on working through panic attacks and how she’s now exploring a subject never talked about within the realms of fashion, domestic violence. To see the full conversation go to IGTV.

Top Take aways

Sarah’s top tips for panic attacks -

Focus on your breath - Take long deep breaths, really focus on feeling the breath go in through the nose and out through the mouth.

By doing that you’re re focusing your thoughts on breathing rather than the irrational thoughts going through your mind. It helps ground and makes everything a little more clearer for that moment.

Question my irrational feelings … when I think about and question my irrational feelings I start to rationalise them.

Mentorship is invaluable … we learn from others … and pass it on

*Typed Verbatim*

Talking to your lectures about wanting to base your research around mental health , how did that go down ? I bet they’ve never had anyone want to base their final collection around mental health before… how did it go down with the fashion lot ?

That’s a good question , I’ll have to think about that .. My tutors were very accepting of the subject I guess, I didn’t have a barrier in that sense , they were accepting of it , they let us explore anything that we wanted to. There was no negative comments from that perspective however the one thing that I did pick up on when I was going through the pattern cutting and sampling. Because each garment represents a mental health condition they’re very educational in the sense that you learn about the stigmas and misconceptions I’m highlighting. I would naturally talk about that to my teachers and people around me , my peers and stuff like that because it was naturally feeding in to the designs. And they were intrigued into what that meant. And I naturally had that open dialogue on mental health and also some people believed in the stigmas and misconceptions so I was then able to to say , “ It’s not like that , it’s like this “ , which was really powerful. I don’t think I realised at the time how powerful it was as I’ve always been so passionate about mental health it’s just like a second nature to talk about it . I’ve been around it since I was born so it was nice to also have that conversation with people really because I wasn’t really having that kind of conversation with people, a few selected friends but it wasn’t a conversation I was regularly having. So to have it was really important to me because of my own mental health struggles, its nice to have that conversation with people.

And you’re actually doing what you set out to do , You’re educating so even whilst you’re going through the process of making your clothes and not even outside , just within the walls of your college , before it’s got out to the real world you’re educating people there straight away. So then how have you found it coming out and now that you’re speaking a lot. Are people really accepting and open. I can imagine they’re really intrigued how you’ve produced such beautiful clothing and have such a strong message , and how you bring those two together.

Yeah , I’ve had a lot of positive feedback. I don’t think I’ve had a really negative one, alot of people find it intreguiging like you said because maybe the visuals, a lot of the time mental health is portrayed through art like painting and illustrations so to see it in fashion that’s an intriguing point for some people. But then also some of the conditions that I’ve explored perhaps might not be a mental health condition that’s spoken about a lot so some people who have these mental health conditions its been quite powerful to them and to hear their feedback, am I portraying it in the correct way ? am i not ? … lets work together kind of thing. But everything’s been really positive , I had a few people say they don’t see how it works , until they’ve seen my garments which has been quite interesting so I guess it shows that its not a normal thing. everything been positive and just to start a conversation on mental health really, if they’ve been struggling or have hardship from their mental health condition. It’s been positive , I’m extremely grateful for how positive it’s been.

You’re young, you’re vibrant, you’re coming out of college learning these skills, and you’ll be learning forever, but then you’ll be passing it on, and passing on that love and dedication and message as well which is just the icing on the cake… isn’t it.

Ah I Hope so , I hope I can share my knowledge, it’ll be amazing. Because I’ve been grateful to have so many people around me and share their knowledge with me. I wouldn’t be where I am today without these people.

Yeah , but its the same for them everybody learns form somebody else don’t they.

Thats true

Thats just the way it is … and should be.

You can see the whole conversation with Sarah on IGTV

Find Sarah Here -

@sarah_hollebon

sarahhollebon.co.uk