Straight from Ry High to Holt’s heights
Fashion designer Megan Roche’s quick route to the big time
National Post 24 Oct 2009 BY DONNA TILLOTSON
Last year, when St. John’s-native Meghan Roche, then 22, was offered the job of a lifetime, she turned it down. After finishing a semester abroad at the University of Westminster through the Ryerson University fashion program, she was working as an intern for designer Christopher Kane and was soon offered a permanent job with the designer.
Kane, 27, is a Glasgow-born, Londonbased fashion designer and has been a favourite of the London fashion scene since establishing his label in 2006. Some said she was crazy for wanting to return to Toronto to finish her last year of school, as it meant jeopardizing a job most of her school peers dreamed of.
But Roche knew she wanted to design her own collection. What’s more, Kane thought she’d shown such talent in technical drawing that he agreed the offer would still stand in a year.
Since graduating from Ryerson this spring, Roche is back with Kane again, running his art department and working on the collection he showed at London Fashion Week last month. With chiffon gingham prints and major models like Freja Beha, even Anna Wintour was clapping in the front row during the finale.
“For someone like me, this is the best job in the world,” Roche says. She’s one of 12 on a creative team. Working on one floor with only Kane, his sister Tammy and their two assistants, Roche is among the inner circle.
“What I do is drawing, anything related to the art aspect. I work with Christopher and we build off one another,” Roche explains. “I translate his hand-drawn sketches into technical drawings on the computer that are sent to have the garments made.”
The biggest struggle for Roche in these early years of her career are the extreme highs and lows of the job. Working for Kane, she is privy to experiences she would not otherwise have as a new designer. On the other hand, she admits a part of herself feels vacant working for someone else. “I would never for a second say I don’t love working for Christopher. And what I’m working on is seen by everyone,” Roche says. “But it is not something I would ever claim as my own.”
Roche can’t pinpoint where she’ll end up — in drawing or fashion design. While thrilled to be working so closely with Kane, she is glad she’s kept the door open back in Canada.
“My last year of school was really important to me. I wanted to complete my own collection so if I end up going out on my own, I have a base to work off of,” she says.
At the very moment that Roche returned to London to work for Kane, her fashion school finale collection was on display at Holt Renfrew in Toronto, one of three collections selected from all those in the graduating class. Roche’s collection featured crepe georgette, with detailed pleating.
“What I learned from Christopher that I brought into my own collection is the over-saturation of technique. Just repeating and repeating and repeating. For me it was the pleating that I put into every piece,” she says of her dresses.
Roche has just returned from Paris Fashion Week, where she was helping with sales for the Kane collection.
“Things are slowly but surely getting started again for the autumn/ winter 2010 season, since this is the shorter season,” Roche says. “I like all the excitement though.”