If you’re searching for fashion that equally incorporates historical memories and contemporary sensibilities, look no further than Genevieve Devine. The British independent brand creates garments and jewellery that tease the boundary between fashion and objet d’art. Salvaging and celebrating the past life of found materials, she reformulates them into new articles of fascination with an idiosyncratic approach that combines conceptual reimagining, careful handwork and fine detailing.
A study in elegance, craft, rawness and absurdity, each palimpsest-garment incorporates its prior life into the construction, creating an experience that can be both empowering and evocative.
“The garments are records of a process that is about finding beauty in uncommon places, following your intuition and dedicating yourself to realising that moment of inspiration with as much integrity and skill as you can muster,” says the Northumberland-born, Newcastle-raised designer.
As an independent label with an emphasis on slow fashion, Genevieve Devine has developed organically. Embracing artisanal one-offs, bespoke, small-capsule and jewellery offerings, the brand exists in a thematic continuum eschewing seasonality. Revelling in an expansive aesthetic universe abound with personal archetypes and myth-making, the designer treats the serious with levity and the lightest things with great care and attention.
Despite her meticulous craftsmanship, Genevive Devine does not seek to replicate perfection – rather, the designer’s instinctive sense of silhouette and emphasis on the bodily experience of the wearer results in a vision that is equal parts feminine and feral, where playing dress-up becomes a form of alchemy.
Below, the designer shares her journey growing her business organically, the worst advice she’s ever received and how she dressed Maya Jama for this year’s Love Island premiere.
How would you describe your label / aesthetic in your own words?
Genevieve Devine as a label is more concerned with an approach or an ethos than an aesthetic. I want to take people along with me in the everyday fantasy of playing dress-up, to be part of the lived experience and imagined past of these found objects. I have a curious wonder in the talismanic power of clothes and objects, the way that they can transform you and themselves be transformed by the wearer.
What’s one piece you’ve made that you feel summarises your label, and why?
The Jodhpur jacket (from my MA collection) feels like the original template for my style and approach and is really special to me. I made it from pulling apart some antique motorcycle jodhpurs that I have hoarded since I was a teenager in Newcastle. I re-imagined the deconstructed pieces of the original garment as a jacket and crafted them with really fine hand sewing techniques. The combination of taking this beautiful ancient masculine-coded garment and sympathetically tearing it apart to make a ragged yet exquisitely-sewn bolero top has so much dense meaning for me that I keep going back to as a designer to remember why and how I want to create.
I want to take people along with me in the everyday fantasy of playing dress-up, to be part of the lived experience and imagined past of these found objects.
What first drew your interest in using found materials in your garments?
During my BA in Newcastle, I basically had no money for materials so I just used what I had around me and could forage from charity shops to create my final collection. What started as a necessity developed into a desire to continue working in a way that was sustainable for the planet and my personal rebellion against the scale of industry waste. I also recognised that I have such an honest love of process and want to show my working in the final pieces. Combining that all together is a way of working that just comes naturally to me.
I have always loved the phrase “necessity is the mother of invention” and feel like the label has been built on that ethos.
Have you always been a detail-oriented person, or has this developed throughout your practice? Why do you think this is?
I have always been obsessed with details and handmade things. Working with and handling vintage and antique garments I’m in awe of the skill and experience that each piece has had applied to it. Craftsmanship is really important to me and shows in the handwork on the pieces where I feel real value can be imbued into a garment transforming it into something to be cherished and passed down. I see details like this as a conversation between maker and wearer, and am always toying with the concept of seeing more as you see the pieces close up.
Can you describe your design process? How has working with found materials influenced your creative process?
Found objects are generally where I start with designing and at a certain point I realised that it felt more honest and real to work with the object than create a contrived replica.
My approach to design is really tactile. I think of each piece as a kind of palimpsest, where my design handwriting writes over a previously existing garment that can still be perceived, capturing an undressed moment, where the original shape is lost in the fold and drape.
I use draping, jewellery techniques and hand sewing to reinterpret, invert, or recut things completely with a kind of semi-surrealistic approach that I describe as ‘automatic dressmaking’. I allow myself to be guided by the materials rather than any pre-set notions. I’m incredibly inspired by objects and the physical process of design, developing little narratives about them as I work – where they’ve been, how they ended up in this shape or whatever story seems to fit the garment I’m making.
One of my other favourite pieces encapsulates this process is made from an old leather satchel which I cut into separate pieces to make up a bodice. Each section is linked by hook and eyes and the shoulder straps are the closure straps from the bag that retain the buckle placement. The original owners’ initials are still visible in gold across the torso and there are the signs of use from its past life. I was both guided by the existing structure of the bag as well as romanticising the idea of the object, as I created something beautifully structured that was, at first glance, unrecognisable as its origin but then totally obvious once you knew where to look.
Fashion icon Maya Jama was recently spotted wearing your designs on Love Island. Can you tell us more about the design she wore and how this happened?
I was approached by Maya’s stylist Rhea Francois to create a custom dress based on a leather bodice from my 2023 collection Feral Muse. The original piece was made from a handbag I found in a charity shop! I took the technique of the construction and designed a full dress version made entirely from leather offcuts. We punched nearly 2000 discs and linked them by hand in my London studio with the design evolving as the dress grew.
The worst advice I have been given is to say yes to every opportunity that comes your way.
What barriers or challenges, if any, have you experienced in accessing the industry?
One of the biggest barriers is money. If you don’t have support from somewhere it can be really difficult to even get your foot on the ladder. I worked in the industry after my BA and saved up money to pay for my MA at CSM and even then I had to work several jobs to stay afloat. There is some support out there but not enough. I’d love for the government to take fashion seriously as an industry and put more funding into supporting designers in the way that tech and other industries get so much attention.
What changes would you like to see, if any, in the fashion industry right now, and how is your brand contributing to this?
It’s exciting that so many independent designers are seeing the potential in recycling and reconstituting fabrics. I think this should be taken seriously in the production cycle of bigger brands that are making the
most negative impact on the environment. My label is built on the ethos of slow fashion and this directs our ways of working from design to production.
The traditional system of fashion week is irrelevant to the ways that many designers want to work and how they want to sell garments, and I think that the traditional wholesale and production system is broken.
What’s the best and worst advice you’ve ever been given about fashion or design?
One of the best things I have been advised is to “stop thinking about it and start doing it”, staying open to happy accidents that come from the process and following your instincts. Some of the most interesting ideas come as a complete mistake.
The worst advice I have been given is to say yes to every opportunity that comes your way. I think it’s important for new and independent designers to collaborate with those that truly resonate with them rather than every and any celebrity opportunity that comes their way. It can feel tempting when there is a big name attached but does that name sit with your ethos?
What song/album/artist/podcast are you blasting on repeat while you’re working in your studio/space?
My newest obsession is the album Expensive Thrills by C Turtle. It’s currently the soundtrack to my studio.
What’s your weirdest or wildest fashion obsession right now?
I’m really obsessed with vintage netball bibs at the moment, thanks to the gorgeous film Blue Jean. Specifically, Goal Defence..
What fictional character would LOVE your label?
Orlando as played by Tilda Swinton in the absolutely gorgeous 1992 film by Sally Potter. There’s so much I could say and so many parallels with my world, but I will just leave it there…
What are your plans for the future?
For the long term, I want to keep working on my craft, building my team and keep growing as a business that sustains itself healthily. Something that provides an opportunity in which there is the privilege to create inspirational garments for people that want to wear them.
In regards to the near future, I have several projects coming up that I’m really excited about – I recently collaborated with the photographer Lara Angelil and stylist Kieran Kilgallon and we loved the shots so much that we are going to release a limited run zine showcasing my recent collection Desire Paths which I can’t wait to share. I have also been working on a collaboration with the HOBAC legend Dave Baby, creating a series of one-offs pieces under the name “Devine Baby” which we are potentially launching in Tokyo later this year.
Additionally, another collaboration (which is under wraps) will be our first proper foray into menswear.
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