AW25 Photoshoot BTS (Behind the Stress)
We’ve been in Clitheroe shooting Autumn Winter 25. It’s the loveliest thing. You get to stay in hotels, go out for tea, work with the best team and hire a beautiful manor house for a couple of days to shoot in. It’s also bloody hard work. The fancy bits are gorgeous but behind the scenes the work and the stress can be immense.
The thing I learned when I was a buyer in London was that if a sample is one day late for the shoot you’re basically fired. The samples cannot be late. If they’re late and you’ve hired a stately home and a crew of 12 and paid for hotels and ordered the stock goods, and then there’s nothing to shoot and also no way of selling it, you don’t have the expense to redo a shoot. If the samples are late, you’re finished, you’re sacked. Career over. Your guts are unsaleable garters.
So, my samples, made in cloth I designed last winter, left a European factory last week. I had the FedEx reference. Should have been with me by the end of last week. Friday came and went. Nothing. All weekend I checked the tracking… at one point the tracking said “Goods have arrived at Stanstead airport.” By Monday I’d learned how to bypass FedEx’s AI and get to speak to a real person. They were stuck in customs. You can’t shout at customs. You can’t sweet talk customs. Customs is customs. If something’s stuck in customs, you’re stuffed.
By Tuesday I asked the real FedEx person to redirect the parcel to the location. We went through a massive process on the phone and she finally told me that the “computer said no!” and that my factory in Europe would have to be the ones to change the address. I spoke to the factory, they emailed FedEx and I set off on the 2-hour drive to the shoot with only half my collection. I checked the tracking again. It still said delivery Wednesday to my office despite the factory redirecting it to Clitheroe.
Wednesday morning comes and suddenly Julie phones me from my office in Leek. “They’re here!” The thing is, I’m in Clitheroe. Do I phone Leek Link taxis? Do I put a shout out on Facebook for cash but sound totally knobby? “Darlings, I need the things. Can someone bring them?” “Shut your face Debs, you’ve gone a bit up yourself”
Finally I sheepishly asked my other half what he was up to and would he mind awfully doing a 4-hour round trip in my battered 14-year-old mini? Absolute star!
️2 hours later, he’s through the electric gates and my samples have arrived. Autumn Winter is saved and my team are phenomenal. I have had to give myself a verbal warning, but I don’t have to sack myself. Everything is OK. *breathes into a bag*
Right my loves, the Summer Sale is on! There’s UP TO 70% OFF the things, so do have a look if you get chance.
