Christopher Kane interview: how London's young gun went global

The fashion industry has an unusual attitude to the passage of time that could best be described as ???non-linear???.For if its front-row denizens never age, neither do its designers.This is why Jean Paul Gaultier is still sometimes referred to as an ???enfant terrible???, despite being 63.It is also why Christopher Kane is lodged in the mind as a ???young designer???, even though this year marks his 10th in the business.Can it really be 10 years since Kane won over the fashion pack with his debut London show, an energetic paean to elastic and neon?With all that he has achieved ??? the numerous awards, the stint at Versus, the buyout by the luxury goods group Kering, the collaboration with J Brand, the launch of handbags and accessories, the make-up range for Nars, the opening of his first London store and the celebrity clientele that includes Emma Watson, Kate Bosworth, Alexa Chung and the Duchess of Cambridge ??? it is easy to forget that Kane is still only 33.

"I try not to think, "Oh, we???ve made it,"because we???re always making it,"says Kane, sipping a herbal tea in his Mayfair store (he recently gave up caffeine after realising it made him anxious and interfered with his work)."We???re always in the process of making something, put it that way."

The ???we??? in this equation refers to Kane and his 38-year-old sister Tammy, who, while she remains largely behind the scenes, is integral to the brand."We???re almost like twins.We think alike; we do everything together.People ask, "What does Tammy do?"and I say, "What does Tammy not do?"Tammy???s my main collaborator, my consultant, my stylist, my businesswoman and my best pal."

They grew up in Newarthill, a village 16 miles from Glasgow, with two brothers and a sister, in a compact home where intimacy was born as much out of necessity as of choice.In early interviews, Kane was always quick to share a colourful anecdote about his and Tammy???s childhood bond (he once revealed they used to sprinkle salt on each other???s heads, just for the fun of picking it out again).

It says everything about Kane that, despite acquiring the patina of a fully-fledged luxury brand, he is still wonderfully honest ??? as far removed from the bland, corporate robo-designers who populate parts of the fashion landscape as it is possible to be.He lives in Dalston, east London, and has a partner who also works in fashion, "so it???s quite good to have that support.He and Tammy get on really well."

Last year Kane held a life-drawing class in his Mayfair store to celebrate Frieze, where guests were treated to the spectacle of the actress Salma Hayek and her husband, Fran??ois-Henri Pinault (owner of Kering, which bought a controlling share in Chris??topher Kane in 2013), frowning in concentration as they tried to render the planes of a naked malebody in charcoal.The class was overseen by Janey Broughan, who taught Kane at Taylor High School in Glasgow."Even then, he stood out,"Broughantold me after the class."His talent was prodigious."

Talking about his fondness for life drawing, I ask now whether it???s true that he used to sketch his sisters naked."No-o-o,"he scoffs.Pause."But I drew my mum.A lot.Semi-nude."That was one relaxed household, I suggest."Well, that???s what we wanted to do,"he says."Who else would I want to sit for me but my mum?I grew up surrounded by women ??? my sisters, and also my mum???s sisters, who were like my other mothers.So I was always around nudity.It was never frowned upon, we were always very liberal."

Kane???s spring 2016 collection, which he titled "Crash and Repair", was influenced by outsider art, a genre that first piqued his interest when Tammy started teaching art therapy in Scotland shortly after their father, a draughtsman, died in 2006.

"She worked with people outside the community, who were either mentally ill or in a nursing home, and I used to help her over the summer during my time off from college,"he says."I???ve always been intrigued by art therapy, because the people Tammy taught produced the most amazing work.It was very primitive, in a sense ??? instinctive.But art is therapy.You get so much from it."

More than most designers, Kane???s collections always feel deeply personal, so it was inevitable that critics would link Crash and Repair???s "creation coming from destruction"theme to the loss of his mother, Christine, who died three days before the show and on the same day that he opened his first London store in 2015.Were they right?"A little bit,"he says carefully."I think it [the collection] is always personal, and obviously when you work with a family member like your sister, it???s our life.It???s what I love.I live and breathe it."He pauses."Be creative again and it gets you through a lot of things."