Mother of Pearl fashion designer Amy Powney is a star on the rise

Amy Powney has taken fashion label Mother of Pearl from cult hit to major player — and she’s just 31. Carolyn Asome meets a star on the rise 
Rasha Kahil
Carolyn Asome15 September 2016

If you haven’t already lusted after the sell-out long-sleeved, almost matronly Lyra dress from Mother of Pearl, you soon will do. The hitherto under-the-radar label is rapidly going from cult favourite among the fashion set to it-brand, beloved by discerning A-listers (Gwyneth Paltrow, Florence Welch and Lena Dunham are fans). Prepare to hanker after this winter’s rose-print ruched velvet dress, ditsy print tops and silk-print shoes, which all cleverly combine the label’s catnip blueprint of homespun femininity with a streak of tomboyish cool.

Founded in 2002 by Maia Norman (former partner of Damien Hirst) the brand has been reinvented over the past year by its 31-year-old creative director, Amy Powney. Having joined the company straight from Kingston University in 2006, working her way up to the role of creative director, she took over full control when Norman stepped away from the day-to-day running of the business last year (she remains the owner). ‘It wasn’t a hard conversation,’ says Powney of taking over the reins. ‘I had been here for 10 years, Maia and I had always got on. I was ambitious and really wanted to push this brand and Maia was thrilled that I was going to do that. She has a busy life and it made sense.’

Despite her forthright vision, there’s nothing showy about Powney with her shoulder-length brown hair and soft voice. Only the Anissa Kermiche gold earrings, not unlike golden Chinese fortune cookies, are a giveaway that she might work in fashion. Yet she speaks passionately on all aspects of the company. ‘Feminine, sporty and modern’ is the design mantra she repeats to herself each season.

Mother of Pearl AW16

She not only designs ruffled tea dresses printed with wallpaper flowers (her Walthamstow house backs onto the William Morris Gallery and his influence is omnipresent), but mannish herringbone overcoats and tailored joggers, too. ‘It’s about finding something pretty with a relaxed silhouette, being able to throw it on and still feel feminine and great and not trussed up.’ She says the Mother of Pearl customer is a strong woman, and if that sounds like the throwaway comment of every fashion designer, she backs it up by telling me about her childhood. ‘I grew up on an off-the-grid farm near Preston. For some time, I lived in a caravan in a field with no water and electricity. We had one mirror,’ she says, outlining the size of an A5 envelope. ‘And yet I was surrounded by strong women: my mother was, and is, very beautiful but she was also very strong, mentally as well as physically.’

London Fashion Week AW16 round-up

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Today, Mother of Pearl is stocked by more than 100 retailers worldwide, including matchesfashion.com, Net-a-Porter and Harvey Nichols. The AW16 collection arrives on shop floors this week, just as Powney reveals her SS17 show at London Fashion Week. Crucially, it doesn’t cost the Earth, sitting alongside names such as MSGM and Tibi. These brands offer desirable ‘designed’ clothes without the intimidating Bond Street price tag. Powney’s dresses start at £495, her shoes at £195. ‘You don’t have to be very rich to be able to save up and still buy them.’ She puts the recent uptick in retailers down to the humour evident in the designs. ‘I think that’s what sets us apart. We take something quite prim but make it fun and light-hearted.’ Powney, a clever and ambitious creative mind, is as intensely likeable as her clothes.

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