'˜Reid all about it' says Derry fashion designer

The limited pilot edition of ‘LookBook’, written and edited by Derry born fashion designer Christopher Reid, contains 140 glossy pages of the work of Ireland’s most talented and creative fashion designers, North and South.

Reid, who now splits his time between London and his native Derry, has handpicked some of Ireland’s best fashion designers to exhibit their work and outstanding images in the magazine.

He says the aim is to give new Irish designers a platform to showcase and to encourage new fashion labels to stay in Ireland and add to what Christopher calls ‘the fashion ecosystem.’

“Over the past few years I’ve spent a lot of time, producing look books for my fashion collections and helping friends with their look books,” explains Christopher.

“This year I came up with the concept of opening a Look Book to get Irish brands noticed, and to give new designers a chance of exposure they wouldn’t normally have access to. “LookBook’ is a new fashion concept magazine for Ireland, an inspiring magazine that’s not taken over with endless advertisements and is beautifully made.

“LookBook is about supporting fashion designers, providing exposure for new Irish Design labels. I want our future designers to have a reason to stay at home, so let’s make the conditions for them just right. I think people can play a part in the future of Ireland by supporting a new fashion designer, for example. Fashion designers buy a lot of fabric so let’s provide them with fabric mills and suppliers. Designers hire factories to manufacture fashion in high volumes so let’s provide them with factories with highly skilled employees. Following on from all this, buyers will buy and so the fashion ecosystem starts again.”

The finished magazine marks the end of months of hard work and dedication by Reid, whose previous clients include the Pussycat Dolls and countless West End stars from ‘We Will Rock You’ and many others. The Irish fashion designer who has his own ladies wear collection, ‘Topher Lily,’ says he believes LookBook will provide a good start for new Irish design labels and university graduates who want to think about staying at home and building their business from there.

Christopher is keen to hear from any designers that would like to be published in the annual magazine. He’d also like to hear from anyone who’d like to get involved, such as Fashion, Accessory and beauty writers.

For more information on any of the designers involved in this pilot issue, visit www.lookbook-magazine.com/contact-lookbook/