Samata New Hub Is Live

The new look site has finally launched, just in time for Christmas.

This platform started in 2008 as a fashion diary, I had just become the first British female to showcase at Nolcha Fashion Week and was buzzing; after graduating with a useful degree in Economics, Finance and Management, I worked as marketing director for a Japanese clothing label, edited a magazine and directed PR for a three floor boutique on Kings Road. In amongst these adventures I decided that the time had come to create a platform to simply jot down experiences and share lazy images. Living in a fashion capital of course I realised that fashion-lovers like myself were a dime a dozen; blogging was becoming popular and like many others I wanted my voice to be heard. I started by covering events and international fashion weeks, sharing images that grabbed me, but as interviews and features came long I started to share news of my growing brand here too.

Seven years later, this website has become a hub and I will continue to use it to defend fashion too, an industry I believe to be home to some of the most brilliant minds – intellectually, not solely creatively – the late Alexander McQueen was one such genius. I also use this platform to illustrate how political, sociological and emotional fashion really is. I believe that clothing is one of the most important and universal communicators of all. Like anyone working in fashion for the right reasons, clothes do matter to me and I believe you are what you wear as much as you are what you eat – especially when it comes to social responsibility. It's too late to not know this and I love watching the light come on when people realise caring about looking good and actually doing good don't have to be mutually exclusive…

This website is a hub for my activities within fashion (designing, speaking and writing) and contains everything I am most passionate about, ultimately with the desire to make a difference, creatively. Since it launched I have grown considerably too.

Do I love clothes? Just take a look at my S Style page to answer that one, but what I love more? The business.

In 2016 my first fiction will see the light of day, as will my clothing label and I cannot wait to share that with you. The former is a dystopian fiction based in a fashion world (of course) and took me a year to write, it is currently being edited by the wonderful Laura Rothschild. The holding page is currently live here with artwork courtesy of the talented Alice Wilson.

Since my days at the Talent Magazine working with then emerging actor Nicholas Hoult (X-Men, About A Boy), I have always been interested and committed to supporting talent. Even though I am also a designer myself, I see nothing wrong with propelling other designers forward too – there is room for all of us, that's why I wrote my book. For me sharing resources started with lectures in the ODEON and then fashion colleges and continued with the Fashion Designer's Resource Book. It will continue in some way with mentoring sessions when I am able to. Not to say I am not busy enough, but mentoring energises me and I am proud to have mentored nearly one hundred students to date – in group sessions or individually.

Whether covering trips to the UN or my sustainable Oscars design project Red Carpet Green Dress I have also always wanted samataangel.com to be a hub of 'the latest', an easy place to keep up with my work.

Some of my subscribers have been following my site since it launched, thank you for hanging in there as I found the right tone and content for this, hopefully you will not be disappointed with the new look. Thank you to the individuals and organisations I have worked with to get my site ready (including Jonathan Pattinson, the London College of Fashion and PlayBigMedia) but also to the ones I am looking forward to working with in 2016 and beyond, including Suzy Amis Cameron, Women for Women, The Academy and Laura Rothschild (who is hosting this incredible writing retreat in Mexico next year, fellow writers take note as there are a few spaces left!)

Bring on the mulled wine and as always, stay tuned.

Samata

Editor of SamataAngel.com, Designer at SAMATA and eternal lover of fashion.