Lulu Kennedy

Lulu Kennedy MBE is the Founder and Director of Fashion East & MAN and the Lulu & Co clothing line. She is also Editor-at-large of Condé Nast’s biannual LOVE magazine as well as working as a consultant for brands.

Early life

Born in 1969, Lulu grew up on the hippy trail between Ibiza, Devon and Sicily,^[1] spending the early 1990s working on raves in Naples, Italy,^[2] a decade she was heavily influenced by. On returning to the UK in 1995, she got a job in a vintage shop at Kensington Market during its heyday and found herself drawn into fashion.

Career

Fashion East

In 1996 Lulu started working for the owners of the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane in East London. Together in 2000 they launched a pioneering non-profit initiative Fashion East, dedicated to scouting and nurturing young designers enabling them to show at London Fashion Week.^[3]

Following Fashion East's success, she set up MAN in 2005 in partnership with Topman – an identical support scheme for emerging menswear designers.

Lulu has fast earned a reputation for discovering and championing exciting new design talent. She launched many of London’s leading fashion names including: Jonathan Saunders, House of Holland, Roksanda Ilincic, Gareth Pugh, Richard Nicoll, Louise Gray, Meadham Kirchhoff, James Long, J.W. Anderson, Christopher Shannon, Ashley Williams & Craig Green.^[4]

Lulu & Co.

Lulu launched her own clothing brand Lulu & Co in 2010 to mark Fashion East’s 10th anniversary. Initially created as a limited edition capsule collection of ten archive dresses by ten Fashion East designers,^[5] Lulu went on to develop the line in house, often collaborating with friends such as artists Tim Noble & Sue Webster, Barry Reigate, Bella Freud & Susie Bick, art director Boyo Studio, and photographer Mary McCartney. It is carried internationally at stockists including Liberty and Net-a-Porter.^[6]

Press

Regularly described as the "fairy godmother of British fashion" by top international press,^[7] Lulu was awarded an MBE title in March 2012 for her services to the fashion industry.

‘For young designers across the world, it helps to have a fairy godmother. New York's budding talent has Anna Wintour. London has Lulu Kennedy... Ms Kennedy is a big factor in the evolution of London Fashion Week.’ Nadya Masidlover, reporter at The Wall Street Journal.^[8]

‘Ms. Kennedy has helped so many that she actually put a city back on the fashion map.’ Eric Wilson & Cathy Horyn, Fashion Critics at The New York Times stated in their list of ‘Fashion’s New Order’ describing the power players of today.^[9]

‘The queen of East London’s fiercely competitive fashion scene’ Luke Leitch, Deputy Fashion Editor, Telegraph.^[10]

‘A spark can’t be rationalised, it just is. And that is strangely comforting. Kennedy and co’s non-profit initiative has played a significant part in reconfiguring the landscape of British fashion – on nothing more than passion and gut instinct.’ Dean Mayo Davies, writer-at-large, Dazed.^[11]

Lulu has also been acknowledged in a number of other key industry lists including; the Telegraph's ‘25 Most important People in Fashion', The London Evening Standard’s ‘The Power 1000 – London’s most influential people 2013’ and Business of Fashion’s ‘BoF500’.^[12]

Personal life

Lulu was married to artist and photographer Mat Collishaw from 2007-2008

Lulu’s daughter Rainbow Kennedy was born in March 2014. They live in East London.

References