Welcome to After Party – the show where I interview sustainable brand founders in their natural habitats
In this episode, I’m joined by Kathryn Hewitson, designer and founder of the fashion label Pristine.
Kathryn’s career in fashion began at cult London labels Meadham Kirchoff, Sibling and Ashley Williams. Later she landed the Head of Design role at Rokit Originals, the upcycled line by the well known London vintage shop. On top of her day job she started selling her own line of corsets on Depop – which started making enough money for her to quit her job at Rokit.
Since launching Pristine in 2021, Kathryn has been committed to supporting local producers working with British wool, and the even the last remaining lace manufacturer in the UK. Kathryn also incorporates deadstock and vintage fabrics into Pristine’s collections, and she has even designed her very own tartan with a traditional Scottish mill!
The brand oozes glamour in all its forms – taking inspiration from old Hollywood films, playboy bunnies and 70s porn mags – fusing a celebration of femininity with the harder edge of subculture.
Having been worn by Julia Fox, Kortney Kardashian, Chloe Cherry, and now me! Pristine is the brand for the cool girls about town.
Imagine a sexy smart-arse girl gang uniting to right the wrongs of the world, with killer cleavage, silk stockings and a mouth full of bubblegum.
When Kathryn isn’t balanced on top of a photocopier scanning her own arse for a Pristine skirt design, she can be found rewatching old Hollywood movies and rifling through 1940s slip dresses for inspiration.
Welcome to the After Party Kathryn!
You grew up in Cumbria, in a village called Thornhill. What was it like growing up there as a kid interested in fashion?
I was kind of an alien! I’ve always been into fashion and clothes and style. When I was a kid I would run around saying “I want to be a fashion designer!” There’s always a story [in interviews] people say “my grandmother was SO stylish,” I would watch her applying her rouge”... it was none of that.
Reading Vogue under the bed sheets, that's a classic.
I just always loved it. Trying to get my parents to be on board with it was a strange one because they didn't have any f*****g reference point of for it. When I was a tiny tiny primary school kid I just always loved figuring out how to make things.
“I would be like, ‘I’m not emo, I’m punk!’ but I guess we all looked pretty f*****g similiar.”
What were you making?
Do you remember the Spice Girls boxes of chocolates? I made a flag out of the sweet wrappers. In year five, I insisted that I made a shoe with a padded foot bed out of kitchen sponges. Or chopping the majority of a t-shirt away and scroll a band name in lipstick on it, they would always ‘disappear’ in the wash.
I wonder why…how did you express yourself through clothes?
There aren’t that many pictures of me as a teenager, but I suppose that was before the time when we were taking photos of everything constantly. I wish I could see the state that I must’ve looked like, with varying colours of green and pink hair and tiny tiny t-shirts, frills and big chunky zips. There's definitely a thread from the things I liked then. I think that teenage me would think that what I do now is really cool!
Was it kind of punk?
Me and my friends were really into Emo, but I would always get tired of that brush, I’d be like ‘I’m not emo, I’m punk!!’ but I guess we looked pretty f*****g similiar. I used to spend a lot of time reading online forums of girls on the other side of the world, like ‘how I chopped up my T-shirt.’ When my Dad came in, I had to click off the screen because he thought they were stealing my bank details.
Was it Tumblr? MySpace?
I was never into MySpace. Live Journal was one of the big ones. I remember this page called ‘Mad Rad Hair’ with loads of people dying their hair and posting pictures of themselves.
Where does Barbie fit into all of this?
I need to show you a photo where I had Barbie bed sheets, Barbie everything, wearing a Barbie t-shirt with little leggings and a Barbie doll on my bed in my pink bedroom, I look SO pleased with myself. It’s funny, I did have a dress to match one of my Barbies, and it was my favourite thing in the world!
Just like Melvin! [Kathryn’s Dog]. When did you decide that you wanted to be a fashion designer?
Really young actually, but I didn’t think it was going to happen because I had a conflict with my parents about it. I was a brainy kid, and they obviously thought I could be an accountant and make loads of money, and I was like, ‘If I don’t go and be an accountant and I don't kill myself, I can save money and start a fashion brand.’
Were you doing textiles at the time?
My A Levels at school were art, maths and further maths. I was in this shitty arse end of nowhere town where there weren't enough people to want to do textiles, but my art teacher really encouraged me to make textile-based things. I made a dress that was kind of Victorian, and had all these appliques, lace and beading. It was pretty hideous, but certain things have always appealed to me. There was a pair of trousers that I used to repeatedly draw in my school notebooks, but I never made them. I'm really thinking of making them now in honour of my teenage self.
What were they like?
They were f*****g nuts. They were slim-leg trousers that were a bit cowboyish. The outside leg was tartan, and the inside leg was leopard print. Sounds quite Pristine actually.
After school, you went to uni in Newcastle?
I’m not sure what their reasoning was, but my parents were like ‘you can study fashion, but you’re not going to London.’ I was the first person in my family to go to uni, and my immediate family are all within a few miles radius of where they were born and grew up. I put so much pressure on finally living my dream, and I realised university wasn’t going to solve all of my problems.
“If I don’t go and be an accountant and I don’t kill myself, I can save money and start a fashion brand.”
How was Newcastle?
I was really depressed for years when I was at uni; it was really tough. I think my graduate collection was the only project I technically finished. I don't think a university environment is necessarily where I thrive. I was the same at school, I much prefer learning by doing, and I’ve always had an issue with authority. People learn in different ways. University just feels like a bit of a scam, to be honest, fashion courses barely teach you anything and there’s so much controversy around unpaid internships, but the universities rely on the internships to teach what they should be teaching them themselves. But there is also no way that 18-year-old me would’ve packed my bindle and gone off to London to make it in the fashion industry, so I don’t know what the answer is.
And then the bright lights, big city of London…
If you want to work in fashion and you're going to be in the UK, you go to London. I always knew I wanted to have my own brand eventually, so I wanted to start by working for other small designers. I started interning in fashion while also working in a pub.
“Big brands will be selling something for three grand and it’ll be made of the cheapest, nastiest fabric – it’s offensive.”
At Roksanda?
Roksanda was when I was still at uni in my year out. It really reassured me that my experience at Newcastle was not the fashion industry. I was interning at Meadham Kirchoff, which very quickly became a sort of job, which also coincided with the collapse of the company. I was working 40 hours in a pub for minimum wage, eating Snickers a day, crying a lot and thinking ‘there’s got to be a way through this.’
“If you’ve touched an amazing duchess silk satin, you’re not going to go, ‘Oh, I’ll use this polyester jersey.’”
On the pot noodles…
But it felt amazing and magical at the same time, like I was getting closer to the path that I wanted to be on. The kind of energy you have for these things when you're younger is insane.
For people who don’t know the brand, how would you describe Meadham Kirchoff? It had quite a following at the time.
Everyone was obsessed! The pieces may have been inspired by subculture, but everything was executed to such a high standard, with couture finishes, luxurious fabrics, structure, layer and volume!! And the shoes were piling on top of that with the make-up, the hair and the styling! They really created a world; it was amazing, and people would dress like it. No one could afford the clothes because it was like 40K for a jacket, because there was so much work in the pieces. I guess when the people who love your stuff are so far away from the people who can afford it, it’s a bit doomed.
What did you learn from being at Meadham?
It started at Roksanda, seeing all these amazing, beautiful fabrics. She would use a lot of old couture techniques – it literally makes my mouth water and gets me so excited! It’s tricky – you want to make stuff that isn’t just purely available to oligarchs’ wives, but if you’ve touched an amazing duchess silk satin, or an amazing cashmere, you can't then go ‘yeah fine I’ll use this polyester jersey.’ I feel like so much of the industry is going that way now; it makes me really sad that quality is fading. Big brands will be selling something for three grand, and it’ll be made of the cheapest, nastiest fabric; it’s offensive.
“Because of the nature of vintage, Rokit attracts really great people.”
All that plastic coming out of these big fashion houses…
Yeah, it’s grim, it’s insulting. I think so many people now don't even know what good quality clothing is because they've never seen it.
How do you try to be the antithesis of that at Pristine?
I know my life would be a lot easier and the business would probably be bigger if I were happy to hop on to a trend and do it cheaply, but my own morals just won’t let me. I wish that the business was selling more and earning more money, but I'm not gonna contribute to the mess that the fashion industry is in to do it.
Do you think working at Rokit Vintage changed the way you think about sustainability? You were Head of Design at Rokit Originals [the upcycled line] ?
That job came along at the right kind of time for where my kind of passions and values were. After years of working in the ‘fashion fashion’ bubble, I was really jaded by it, and had some really bad experiences. The grass isn’t always greener, but what was really great at Rokit was that I got a lot of freedom. I was trusted to experiment and do things, and we had so much available to us. If I wanted a load of wool blankets or silk scarves, the sourcing end of the company that was based in Canada would take the time to get them for us.
Because of the nature of vintage, Rokit attracts really great people, and I made so many great friends there. My passion was the more experimental stuff we were doing, like coats made out of blankets and upholstery fabrics. On the lower price point end, we were customising jeans and t-shirts and churning out hundreds of those pieces. I was working on the designs and the patterns, but also managing the team and the production of all of it, and the pricing and the social media. Rokit Originals was very much its own brand within the brand. It’s completely different now, so don’t look it up and think it has anything to do with me. I even said when I went into that job, this is going to be my last job, after this I’m going to do my own thing.
“I’m massively inspired by fabrics, and I’m trying to work as much as possible with deadstock and existing materials.”
Let’s talk about the transition from Rokit to Pristine…
It was always on the cards, and it was the right time. I had some health issues that I had dealt with, and I was finally feeling that I was in the space where, mentally and physically, I could do it. The job that I had wasn't very well paid, and I didn't have any money from anywhere else, so I would wait every month get paid and spend 100 quid on silk, or screen printing next month and then selling random old pieces on Depop to kind of pay for it, like pieces I had, some Meadham or my Dior Saddle bag. [*cry]
It took the best part of a year and a half of me gradually chipping away at it. I was running out of things I could sell and I needed to strap money together to do my photoshoot. I saw the trend for corset tops picking up steam, so I thought f**k it! I’ll just take a couple of shitty pictures of myself in the flat in the corset tops. I remember looking on Depop and this was peak Depop and they were f*****g terrible. All I needed to do was get mine out there and it will happen. It really did and it was really overwhelming. And then the money was coming in, and the fact that people want to buy your stuff, it’s an amazing feeling.
What was the best seller?
It was a really basic, heavy organic cotton, like black twill. We did a white version later with lace trim everywhere and little bows. I was working full time in the day, and then coming home and working evenings and weekends. Then I was getting up at like five in the morning and reading books about marketing. I was sewing constantly but it was really exciting.
Where did your love of corsets come from?
I've always been fond of historical garments, they get a really bad rep but actually they’re pretty comfortable. I sometimes get bitter when I’m making these pieces. I had breast cancer and I had a mastectomy, and I don't look as good in these things as other people do – I would love to be like all tits McGee – corsets are just so satisfying as an object.
Let’s talk about the OG, the one that went wild on Depop…
This is the Candy Top which were made in black, white, blue and pink and then people wanted customisations so we did it with a zip or in velvet. In contrast, this is the Cha Cha corset from the current range, which is much more structured, it’s much more like hardcore, and has steel boning, in this gorgeous deadstock heavy Dutchess satin and the tassels that we make ourselves!
“It doesn’t need to look old-fashioned, it can still be some stupid little tarty dress with your arse cheeks hanging out.”
And then inside of this dress – between and lining and the outside – has coutil panels and boning, and then has waist tape, which is an old couture technique, a lot of couture techniques that existed in older garments were functional as well as beautiful and they were there to make it last, so much of that is lost now. People don’t know that these techniques existed, and I think that partly comes from my love of vintage, but it doesn’t need to look old-fashioned, it can still be a stupid little tarty dress with your arse cheeks hanging out.
Which vintage pieces do you look to for inspiration?
One of my big loves is 1930s fashion, old Hollywood glamour – metres and metres of bias cut silk. There’s something that feels so modern about a lot of those pieces, even though they are close to 100 years old now. I also love the 60s as a period for fashion, especially the early 60s which looks like the 50s but somehow really camp, crazy coloured and tacky. In my head, 60s fashion and 30s fashion are the opposite of each other in terms of fabrics and silhouettes, the 60s were very structured and clean. I don't really like when something is done by halves, it’s got to be the most glamorous or the most structured.
What else would you say are some of your main inspirations?
I’ve always, since I was a teenager, I’ve been really interested in subculture, mainly punk but also aspects of goth and fetish and combining those aesthetics with old Hollywood or couture elements. I think that's where the core of the brand is, you can make this beautifully made structured dress with all these internal details, but on the outside you look like a bloody trollop, that’s Pristine.
You describe the Pristine girl as a girl with a clear, conscious and a dirty mind
She loves clothes and glamour and the positive aspects that they can bring to her life. It’s about doing it for yourself and living life on your own terms, wanting to get dressed up in a sassy little outfit for you. If someone thinks it's for them, they can get a kick in the teeth.
What does your design process look like?
I'm massively inspired by fabrics and trying to work as much as possible with deadstock or with existing materials. There are a few deadstock suppliers that I’m constantly checking their website, and if I see something that’s right, I will buy it, and then I just have to figure out what I want to use it for later, which means it was a very expensive year last year. I had an idea for a blouse that I worked on the pattern for and I had this deadstock fabric in mind, but the day I went to buy it I got the tab open on my phone, and then I thought ‘I want a big screen,’ by the time I got to the office someone else had bought it…it was crushing. Nothing else has come up yet that is right for it, which is so annoying because I really want it to exist.
“If we don’t support these businesses, then they will go, and the world will be a much less beautiful place.”
Let’s talk about some of your pieces made from deadstock
I’ve been changing the way I do things, slowing the pace down and focusing on quality and not overproducing. Working with deadstock where I can and working with suppliers that I don’t want to disappear. Each garment in the current collection is made at least partly from deadstock.
Where do you source your lace from?
I have three main suppliers that I will get lace from, 2 are based in France and the other, which is the UK’s last lace mill, the only one left. They’re based in Nottingham, which has a whole heritage of making lingerie, that’s nearly all gone now, but Clooney, the company that I get this lace from, have the most amazing, beautiful range, and they're really nice, and it's not prohibitively expensive for the quality of it, compared to some nasty crap you’re going to get from China, it just doesn’t compete. If we don’t support these businesses, they will go, and the world would be a pretty sad place, a much less beautiful place.
And you designed your very own tartan, which I’m sporting today
It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, combining traditional materials with a playful spin. I’ve always liked tartan, always in the market for things in a tartan, but I’m really fussy about the colours that I wear. You know, the Clans in the Highlands aren't skipping around in pink kilts – I wish they were! I work with an amazing company called Lock Aaron of Scotland that makes fabrics for traditional Clansmen and big designer brands as well, and it was really satisfying getting involved in that process. They care about maintaining the integrity and heritage of it, but you can still play around with it and still make something that looks really modern and playful. The Scottish Tartan Registry keeps a record of all the tartans that have been made. They care about maintaining the heritage and integrity of it, which is really nice.
“It’s really funny how many people are walking around wearing a picture of my bum.”
Let’s talk about newsprint, you’ve made headlines!
I've always loved newspaper prints. My hero designer Elsa Scaparelli was the first person to ever do it and Franco Moschino and obviously, Galliano, it's just great. It was a process making the print – I wrote the headlines, I wrote the articles, I chatted a lot of s**t. ‘Horoscopes are real: NASA scientists confirm’ there’s also little Easter eggs in there like birthdays.
And what about the bum skirt?
I love trompe l'oeil stuff, and had the idea for this piece, I was trolling online trying to find the right underwear, it had to be right. I found this amazing Fredericks of Hollywood set that I ordered from America, it was about 200 quid or something…it’s paid for itself multiple times over at this point. I took a photo of me in the spare room of the flat where I used to work from. Just taken on my phone, nothing glamorous, nothing cool about it. If you could see the chaos of the room, I was peak busy. This piece did really well and it was a signature for the brand for ages, it was a nice little money maker, and it’s really funny how many people are walking around wearing a picture of my bum. That wasn’t on my bingo card. Put it on my tombstone.
“It’s going to do a lot to help people stop seeing clothes as being disposable and the people who make them being an idea of a person rather than an actual human being on the other side of the world that’s being treated like s**t.”
It's quite similar to the piece that Julia Fox wore. How does it feel to have celebrities wearing your staff?
Mixed emotions. I don’t want to say I feel nothing because that’s not true. It’s really sad how when you’re younger you dream of doing these big acheivements that you think are going to make you feel really excited. Really famous people don’t necessarily tag the brand, or sometimes it’s been purchased a really long time ago. What is nice is when you get fans of the brand sending things to me and commenting, and that feels really special.
Let’s talk about the Julia piece…
It doesn’t have the most hanger appeal, annoyingly. The styling, the pigtails, and the boots were very good. Her stylist reached out, and they pulled quite a few bits. You never know if it’s going to be worn or not, but people LOVE her. I reposted a photo to my story and the photographer said they were going to sue me which hasn’t happened yet. The first time I loaned it to anybody days after it had been shot, it came back practically destroyed, and it had stains on it that they couldn’t get out as they were rolling around in the mud. Not Julia Fox’s stylist but somebody else. So it was good to have a good association with it, the interest definitely spiked after she wore it.
Any other stylist that you'd love to slide into the DMs?
All my favourite people are dead or really old, but at the same time if Madonna’s stylist came knocking I’d be like yeah! I always joke about Miss Piggy. I have DM’d Miss Piggy's Instagram account a few times, saying ‘let me dress you.’
If you could bring back anyone from the dead to wear Pristine for a day. Who would it be?
Mae West.
What would you put her in?
It would have to be custom!
What do you love about Mae?
She was doing it on her own terms and had so much f*****g spunk!
This is a bit of a segway but let’s talk about workshops…
I am really passionate about people seeing value in their clothes and people having a craft and a skillset. I think the more we can do to make people physically in touch with the clothes that they are wearing and buying it’s going to do a lot to help people stop seeing clothes as being disposable and the people who make them being an idea of a person rather than an actual human being on the other side of the world that’s being treated like s**t. Me doing a workshop isn’t going to solve it, but I think that you have to do things that contribute to the world being more like it should be and less like the hell scape it is right now.
At the same time it’s so nice to meet people when so much of the brand is online, and doing things in real life is something that I want to do more of. The look on people’s faces when they haven’t sewn anything in their life and they leave at the end of the day and are so proud of themselves. I have this craving to do more stuff that has that community aspect.
If the world were to end tomorrow, what would you be wearing to the After Party?
Hopefully it’s not going to be tomorrow because in 3-4 months’ time the collection that I’m working on is going to have some amazing pieces inspired by showgirl costumes with fringe – let’s go with that, so it better not be tomorrow.
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