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Designer Nabil El Nayal at the Manchester In Fashion catwalk show
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Sew and tell by city's latest star designer
Helen Tither20/10/2008
NABIL El-Nayal's mum had every reason not to be too impressed with her son's early attempts at fashion. Luckily for the 23-year-old designer, however, she saw the funny side of his first dress-making session.
"I started sewing when I was just four years old," he smiles.
"I made my mum a wedding dress. She'd just put new net curtains up, I took them down without her knowing and made this dress. I remember presenting it to her - she was really overwhelmed."
Perhaps she spotted a style genius in the making, as that scissor-happy tot has gone on to become one of the most hotly tipped new British designers of recent years, bagging the highly sought-after, British Fashion Council MA Scholarship this summer. The first year the prize has been awarded, it means Manchester Metropolitan University graduate Nabil can pursue his dreams of dressmaking, with a place on the Fashion Womenswear MA at The Royal College of Art in London.
Next Matthew Williamson
Already, he is being tipped as "the next Matthew Williamson" - set to follow in the footsteps of Manchester's famous catwalk king. Now, having just moved to London to start his two-year course, he's the toast of the capital's fashion set. But, he says, Manchester was the city that helped him find his fashion feet.
"I moved here from Sheffield to do an art foundation course," he says. "But I fell in love with Manchester's underground fashion scene and would spend loads of time at Afflecks and the northern quarter boutiques. I soon moved on to BA (Hons) in Fashion at Manchester Met.
"I just loved living in Manchester, it was where I really started to feel accepted."
For the softly-spoken and modest Nabil, acceptance hasn't always come easily. He was born in Syria to an English mother, Vicky, and Syrian father, Ghassan, and soon discovered his artistic flair was frowned upon in that particular society.
"By the time I was 14 I was making lots of clothes but the emphasis in Syria was definitely on academic studies," he recalls. "I'm also dyslexic, which isn't really recognised over there. Mum realised my strength was art, and that I was not going to thrive there, so she moved us back to the UK."
With Nabil's dad staying in Syria, money has been tight for the fledgling fashion guru and his former careworker mum. Certainly, he says, without the BFC scholarship he would not be able to carry on the expensive career route to the Royal College of Art. It is a stumbling block for so many talented graduates now emerging from Manchester Met and Salford universities.
However, he says above all it was his mum who has proved the biggest support.
"She's my inspiration," he says. "She's so stylish, with bright red curly hair, she never used to wear headscarves when we were in Syria, she would walk around in sequinned dresses and stilettos and didn't care what anyone thought of her. The earliest thing I can remember is my mum in her red six-inch stilettos, standing on my thumb!"
Beautifully crafted
While his mum's style was extravagant, Nabil's final university catwalk collection - which won the Womenswear award at this year's Graduate Fashion Week - was more austere. Inspired by Victorian and Elizabethan fashions, it featured beautifully crafted dresses, hand-sewn by Nabil in Manchester.
Not only did it bag him the sought-after scholarship, it so impressed BFC judge Christopher Bailey, he offered the newcomer a month's work experience at fashion label Burberry, where he is creative director.
But while international fame might be beckoning, Nabil reckons he will always remain true to his Manchester beginnings. Back in town recently for our own answer to London Fashion Week - Manchester In Fashion - he says he would love to come back in years to come with his own catwalk spectacular.
"I would love to have set up my own label within the next five years but I think you still have to remember where you started," he says.
"England is full of talent and the rest of the world wants to seek it out. A lot of designers get really excited and move away.
"One day I will come back to Manchester and put on a really big spectacle of a show."
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