It's all sparkle and shine, flora and fauna inside Sadie Williams' cozy Haggerston studio. "I really love prints and colours - I just go for it!" says the 28-year-old designer.

Williams’ passion lies in textiles – but she is no fabric snob. In fact, it's the “tacky, sparkly fabrics” that get her design mojo flowing. “It goes back to my youth, going to Shepherd’s Bush Market with mum. I want to take something tacky and make something refined and modern out of it – using craft in an innovative way,” she says.  

Given this proclivity, it should come as no surprise that her well-received graduate collection for her Central Saint Martins MA degree was an 8-piece line of otherworldly, floor-length gowns – made with Lurex. The notoriously flimsy fabric went through repeated treatments of bonding and layering, then printing and embossing, to make it durable. Her Ikebana-inspired AW15 debut collection used metallic panel decorations on sheer mesh dresses, for what Williams calls “luxe-craft”.

She buzzes with a devotee's reverie as she talks about her beloved heat press. "I use this heat press so a lot of times, I have to use synthetic fabrics to get the patterns on easily," says Williams. "It's my favourite piece of equipment."

The NEWGEN designer’s love of arts and crafts runs through her family. Her mother, an avid self-furnisher, still gives her sewing tips. Williams also collaborates with her filmmaker brother Joe on various animation and film projects for the likes of Marc Jacobs and Katie Hillier. “I’ve always put a lot of myself into my clothes. I want to keep my designs quite personal,” she says.

Because caught up with Williams before her AW16 presentation during London Fashion Week in February.

Sadie Williams' Inspirational Objects

Interview by Jainnie Cho