Nadine Merabi: Manchester Designer Makes Moves At LFW

KNOW a girl in your life who thought she could be a fashion designer? You know the one, “I could do better than that, blah blah blah”; there are plenty of them. Then there are the ones who go to college to study dressmaking, come out, spend a year or two discovering that it’s really, really hard work so try and get in a job in PR/media/whatever looks trendy at that particular time?

Nadine picked up a needle and cotton in anger 18 months earlier.  Now she has her own catwalk show at London Fashion Week.

Again, they discover that talent is needed, as well as sheer bloody hard work. It comes as a shock, one that 99.9 per cent of them don’t get over.

One of my pals announced about a year and a half ago that she was going to become a dress designer. In fact, she was going to launch a fashion label.

Nadine Merabi At London Fashion Week

“How long have you been learning to do this,” I asked, wondering who was going to get the next round in.

“Just started last week” said Nadine Merabi. “It's going to be called Merabi”.

“I’ll have a pint please”, I said to her boyfriend, the Irish giant Morgan Leahy.

And that was it for me; I haven’t really bothered taking a close look over the past eighteen months. I leave that to my Editor over on Body Confidential, Lynda Moyo. I couldn’t tell you the difference between a skirt and a dress to be honest.

Nadine has had me to the launch of a shop, and a couple of local shows. It seemed that she was actually making headway. Local headway. Then, yesterday, on Twitter I spotted the fact that another pal, who knows her onions, Dianne Bourne, gaffer of the Diary Pages on the MEN, was in London to see the launch of a Manchester designer. At London Fashion Week. Nadine Merabi.

Eh?

I couldn’t let this pass, so I jumped on the early train for That There London Town. Fashion TV’s gaffer, Amanda, spotted me and put me on the front row, next to Michelle Collins, from Corrie.

A dress from the Merabi collection

So far, so good. Two shows up first, Delada, great, then Zeynep Tosun; even a pleb like me could see that this lady had started ten years ago as an apprentice in a dark room somewhere and was currently blossoming, with couturier building standards resulting in quite brilliant tailoring.

I was sat there thinking that Nadine was going to be slaughtered. Then her girls came on; Michelle and I cheered in support. Then sat there open-mouthed. Because this stuff was a step change from the floaty outfits seen before.

Eighteen months in, the Merabi range has knocked my socks off. It’s a stunning achievement. Nadine picked up a needle and cotton in anger 18 months earlier.  Now she has her own catwalk show at London Fashion Week.

Merabi needs watching. I shall leave it to my professional staff to write on the clothes with authority. I can’t as I keep filling up every time I think about it.