(Note: This is a not retelling of history itself, or a broad story. It is simply a recounting of events in a comprehensive format. There are no questions of identity and the original text was hugely edited. As all career aspects would be too much to write here and some were contractual).

The Caribbean Awakening

This passion restarted again on a trip to the Caribbean, while staying at his great-grandmother’s house in Castle-Bruce, Dominica.

“They had American television in the house, I wasn’t going to waste it. I grew up watching factual news programmes and documentaries. My sibling and I were glued to the TV (and drinking cocoa with snacks). Our Great-Grand wanted us outdoors, exploring and going to the beach; but the beach at that time was windy and nobody was on it”.

A news segment popped up about Karl Lagerfeld and Chanel’s Haute-Couture Autumn/Winter 1988 collection at Paris Couture.

“I had never heard of haute couture and couldn’t even spell it, writing out ‘Oute C’outure’ (in my bad handwriting).”

Andrew also wanted to see fashion designers who reflected his identity, but he didn’t let that dim his desire to be part of the fashion world.

“There were obviously designers in Paris and London I knew and people who I looked up to, but in the wider landscape it was different at that time, but I was always ambitious and serious and didn’t really focus to hard on the issue, I just wanted to succeed, I knew compatriots who were brilliant, that’s what spurred me on”.

First Magazines.

When Andrew returned to school in the UK, a classmate announced she was throwing out issues of Vogue, WWD and Harpers & Queen.

“I’d never read Vogue magazine, but I took a bag of magazines home and my entire perspective changed.” 

Andrew’s fascination grew into a voracious appetite, spurred on by his classmate, who had her own sophisticated illustration style, sketching in pencil, pastels and watercolours much akin to Halston’s illustrator. He asked her for more magazines and read everything he could find, including “The Fashion Conspiracy” by Sir Nicholas Coleridge which he enjoyed reading in bed with a cup of tea.

“I liked her way of drawing and we would also talk in the morning before classes and she was a person you could have a grown up chat with, I recognised her drawing style nobody else did. Other people wanted her to do painting by numbers.”

A Letter of Great Import.

As Andrew’s interest grew, his form tutor asked if he’d like to write a letter to fashion designer Alistair Blair, whom the tutor knew from St. Martin’s School of Art. Blair had trained with Marc Bohan at Dior, worked in Paris for Karl Lagerfeld, and went on to design for Pierre Balmain.

Andrew wrote a sincere letter about his love of fashion, and Blair generously replied with an invitation to London Fashion Week. Andrew’s first fashion show, a remarkable opportunity.

“It was amazing to go to London Fashion Week as a young person, I couldn’t believe I was there. Dusty Springfield and The Pet Shop Boys were on the soundtrack. It was a lovely collection”.

He loved Blair’s collection: leather jackets, short skirts, black cocktail dresses; which he felt was in some ways Italian inspired.

Years later, they would run into one another outside a Lagerfeld Show in Paris, at the Cours Caree De Louvre, whilst Andrew was on a university trip. Blair greeted him warmly, and they attended the Lagerfeld Show together.

Later a classmate took him along to see Andre Walker’s show “Frosty Christina” , as her friend was cutting the patterns, a memory that has always stayed with him. It was a whirlwind of style designer Joe Casley Hayford was in attendance, with Andre Leon Talley and Polly Mellen sitting opposite.

Focusing on The Technical.

Andrew decided not to sit A-Levels and advance his fashion skills at technical college. A girl in his year asked if he could make her a suit for £60 in the latter years of highschool; this due to his keen interest in fashion.

"It was terrible, I felt I let my standards down. I couldn’t sew, and was trying to understand how to construct garments, which is really quite complex. That’s something I’ve really applied myself to perfect over the years.”

Waiting For Karl.

One day, he took a group of students to Harvey Nichols, where Karl Lagerfeld was hosting a fragrance event at the store.

“Meeting Karl Lagerfeld in person was a great moment. He was so kind and said that he loved photographing all the the key models and actually quite engaging. He signed all my KL catalogues and books – out of respect, I didn’t want to take out all my Chanel catalogues.”

Gaining Ground.

Andrew had gained confidence from his letter to Alistair Blair and continued to send letters to his favourite designers and couturiers in Paris, Rome and Milan. He understood that it was important to express his fondness for their work and seek the best opportunities he could, later relying on some friends and colleagues.

Whilst on the course, Andrew got an internship with Bruce Oldfield and was buoyed on by lecturers, particularly one from the Royal College of Art, who had been at the Royal with Paul Smith’s wife Pauline. Andrew also met designers Arabella Pollen and Elizabeth Emmanuel, famous for making Princess Diana’s wedding dress.

“Me and a friend ran into Elizabeth on the corner of Haunch of Venison Yards and we spoke, she asked us to come up to the office, I had my portfolio with me, very adhoc, everybody was based there at the time and you take every opportunity you can”.

By this time, his enthusiasm for couture and design continued.

“I made friends with a PR girl who was starting her own agency. She was so helpful and really pushed me. She got me in to see people I would never have had an opportunity to meet. I was Forever grateful.”

Accessories – The Artisanal Touch.

At the age of 18, Andrew also had an accessories portfolio, and was arranging meetings with designers via his PR contact. Through her he presented his work to handbag designer Anya Hindmarch, who had just launched her brand in Pont Street, Knightsbridge. Jacques Azagury took a keen interest (another designer who played a key role in dressing Princess Diana), but as an 18-year-old young man, Andrew and his colleague couldn’t manage to get financing to set up production of his bags in Italy, though the bank on South Molton Street, London loved their business plan.

“Jacques was wonderful about it and was always a good support over the years, whenever I ran into him in London”.

Whilst in Paris on the same university trip where also bumped into Alistair Blair, he also met the brilliant French jewellery designer Dominique Aurientis (Dior, Ferragamo, Pucci et al) and presented his portfolio to her at her showroom on Rue Turbigo, Paris.

“Aurientis gave positive guidance and suggestions and her husband told me to take my sunglasses off. They were brilliant! I really admired her work from the media and magazines, I was heavily into all the Jewellery Girls. She was so quintessentially French, and it was interesting to meet her and get such a respected opinion on my work.”

Rounding off this era. Andrew was kindly asked by Manny Silverman to present his portfolio to the House of Hartnell in London. Norman Hartnell formally being known as the official couturier to Her Majesty The Queen - Elizabeth II and HRH Princess Margaret.

“That was a great opportunity, but timing was a bit off as Marc Bohan was leaving and they were having some difficulties; Dominique Aurientis was also doing jewellery for Bohan. I ran into Manny years later at LFW, he gave such glowing praise of both my book and Dominique’s work”.

“I Don’t Want Realism – I Want Magic” 
: Blanche Dubois

Then came the collection that inspired Andrew’s world that persuaded him to apply to St. Martin’s School of Art. 

Blanche Dubois John Galliano’s Spring-Summer 1988 collection became the catalyst for Andrew’s academic ambition. After Galliano won Designer of the Year, Andrew saw a fashion spread in W magazine, with quotes from many industry luminaries. 

“The collection which I always thought was called something to do with Balenciaga turned the conventional approach upside-down! It really moved me. The way the clothes were cut made my mind spin and forever changed the way I saw a working brief or the execution of style.”

The magazine spread went on his wall at home, and he applied to the renowned St. Martins School of Art in London. He did think about Parsons in New York, but that was not a real possibility due to finance.

The 1990’s.

Nineties Soho was an epicentre of culture and subculture with a Bohemian spirit and creative vibe, and new voices and faces emerging in the fashion scene. After being accepted at St. Martin’s, Andrew was relieved, but not shocked. He was happy that his years of work and research and visits to the V&A library each Saturday had paid off. 

“To be from London and have read and researched fashion media, then to see it up close in Soho was amazing.”

St. Martin’s School of Art was a wonderful place to express and create, and also a demanding place. Like many students, Andrew was full of energy and ambition, brimming with ideas, but wondered which was the best route to his dream to work in couture.

“Many students struggled there. I read Katy Grand says she found it hard to choose which option to take. Perhaps it was just too early for me at 18, coming from a home environment and then being dropped into the intense Soho scene”

Magazine or Atelier?

At this moment, Andrew's mind and conversations were focused on Chanel, Ozbek, Galliano, Westwood, Lagerfeld, Saint Laurent and Lacroix, the list growing ever-longer. Andrew wondered whether to become a fashion magazine editor or continue on the design pathway. Andrew, esentially a very academic-minded person, loved the college and his lecturers.

“You don’t want to let anybody down, I loved the college history and library and I revisted the idea of going back under Louise Wilson and Fleet Bigwood for MA Textiles (Joe Casley wrote the reference) ; with a view to starting my own collection after, but again it was a tumultuous time and I was travelling back and forth from Holland and then Spain on work, so it kind of didn’t work out”.

“New York State of Mind".

At this point, feeling ambitious but unsettled, Andrew arranged an internship with Michael Kors in New York.

“I saw myself as a couture person, but I understood other styles, from the romantics to Japanese designers. I loved the approach of Comme des Garcons too. Obviously, the New York designers played a big part in moulding a certain understating of fashion as business, and how to approach design from a differing perspective in a larger landscape. I was basically open to it all.”

To get accepted at Michael Kors, Andrew had contacted the Public Relations Director, who said it was a tough time, and their business was going through changes, but he would be welcome to come over.

“I just thought, I want to be in that studio and office.They had such great people there, and they seemed to adapt to all the changes in the fashion world and took it in their stride, with the support of the industry. It was definitely an interesting learning curve.”

Threadbare – but Eager.

After the internship, Andrew forged on in New York, looking for opportunities, visiting Oscar de la Renta and gaining a meeting with Isaac Mizrahi, whom he admired greatly, after arranging the appointment with his assistant. 

“In the coffee shop downstairs at the Hearst building, I spotted SaraJane Hoare and spoke with her, I had appointment to see her. I had also been to see somebody at Vogue and I’d grown up with Sara’s styling work and British Vogue stuff, so I knew she was a person to see at Harper’s Bazaar. She was fantastic – we went up to her office in the elevator, and she was already putting the facts into place before we got out. I loved her straight talk, and that’s what led me to go see Isaac. Sarajane had also done a great Vogue-Spy piece when Isaac started out for British Vogue and I loved his sketch of a Tomato-Red Duffle Coat”.

On The Cusp of Change.

Eventually, Andrew returned to London, where he began helping friends across various fields, including magazines. He would go to Tower Records with a good friend and they would read everything: Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Vogue and more. Music was also important, as it was from a young age and they would look at albums especially rock and jazz and other genres.

Andrew helped young friends start their magazine ventures, wrote the odd article and styled the odd photo shoot. He also helped friends working in fashion. Everything was a collaboration, and he drew inspiration from every type of fashion endeavour. He realised he probably wasn’t going to be a fashion editor and he still held the idea of designing couture closely to heart.

“It didn’t bother really, because I understood my place in things and was generally happy for others and supported them, it’s just the way it was, you accept things in life”.

This was a transitional time for fashion, emerging out of the more conservative couture world into the era of Helmut Lang and Margiela. McQueen had just shown his early collections, and Cool Britannia was on the horizon. 

It Starts With The Cloth.

“Expanding my understanding of other cultures is always a great inspiration for design work.”

In the early 90s, Andrew felt a growing fascination with textiles, sparked by the Barbican Exhibition Catalogue on African Cloth, Co-Curated by Joe Casley Hayford.

“I was already into cultural textiles. I loved the paintings of Goya and Velazquez and how they influenced couture. I was always open-minded, so textiles just broadened my range.”

Andrew began collecting books and obsessively reading tomes by Peter Adler and other leading proponents of cloth.

“In a way fabrics were always the starting point for me.”

Andrew began designing fabrics and developing his own ideas, trying his hand at building his own collections. He made cashmere sweaters using various motifs from different cultures, also using beads and a couture approach.

“I had a group of multi-cultural friends, and we travelled to places that fuelled our interest. There was a girl in Scotland who worked at one of the big cashmere mills, and we would speak on the phone, then she would send me yarn”.

The Art of Beads & Stones.

This led to an obsession with embroidery, which Andrew had always been curious about, and now began to refine. Deep research and visiting exhibitions inspired new ideas, new garments, and spurred him to create his signature style. 

“I really wanted to start my own collection. I had been to Paris a few times and people had suggested it, but the timing didn’t feel quite right. As a perfectionist, and  wasn’t comfortable putting things out if they weren’t right, so I continued developing my own vision quietly”.

After speaking to a family friend in Portugal, Andrew contacted a renowned embroidery house in India, who were linked to serious embroidery enterprises that served such illustrious houses as Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel, Valentino and Giorgio Armani.

“As we turned the millennial corner, life had thrown many unexpected angles my way. I felt I had to be versatile and see the changes. I wasn’t stepping on anybody toes so to speak, I didn’t think about it in that way. It was simply a natural process. I’m still very supportive of others and wish them the best”.

Whilst visiting Paris, Andrew made the decision to travel to India, with the aim of developing his own pieces and perfecting his embroidery. His particular forte was design and sample development.

An Indian Voyage.

Andrew began working with a broad range of couturiers, designers, creators and stylists. He opened a small office in London’s Borough Market, providing fine embroidery samples and textile ideas for designers and houses such as Betty Jackson, Roland Mouret, Pierre Balmain, Valentino, Jitrois, Genny, Armani and many others. He continued developing and designing embroidery, building on his ideas and developing early collection ideas.

Making The Leap.

Andrew deepened his inspiration by travelling extensively and looking beyond fashion, working on textile projects for homes and interiors. He refined the dream of creating his own businesses, ideas and concepts, devoting himself to learning and understanding the art of couture, with the aim of developing his own collections.

“I decided now was the time to devote myself to my ultimate goal, to design clothes. If you give me a napkin in a restaurant, a receipt or a scrap piece of paper, I’ll cover it with sketches. It’s just something within my nature.”

Over the past few years, Andrew has perfected and honed his craft. His freehand sketches fuel his approach to garment design, influenced by partly by his school friend, but from a fashion standpoint well Eula and Mats Gustafson. (Antonio is also a great influence from the direction of technique and inspiration).

“People love my loose sketches, that first spark of inspiration coming to life on paper. I spent time perfecting that craft, along with toiling the garments, holding the calico and looking at the construction of garments to understand how to translate the loose sketches into finished garments. I have looked at musuem pieces from the greats and visited Ateliers and spent hours reviewing just a - basic mock up.

Milan Bound.

Following all the key clothing collections and news, along with the revolutionary changes in the fashion industry, Andrew kept his creativity and ambitions growing. After rounding off travels, the key focus was on developing his own couture collections. This road has led him to Milan, to start his own design studio and business.

“Italian fashion was always an inspiration, from the Ready-To-Wear perspective and the history of the couturiers who broke ground there along with the magnitude of the Italian fashion industry”.

Andrew loves the work of Albini, Armani, Valentino, Ferre, Prada and Versace, along with all the key players within the Italian Fashion story. So to actually make it to Milan felt like the perfect opportunity, after trying so hard to move forward in London. Milano helps him focus on creation - and success.

The Studio Process.

Milano provides the space and possibilities for Andrew to develop his garment and textile ideas and focus on building his business with sole purpose and a unique vision.

“At the end of the day, it’s about quality and it’s about striving to achieve; I learned early on that the base cloth has to be good and that is what I always wanted to focus on. It is about the way I wanted to operate my studio and where I felt comfortable doing so, also the place where that was going to work”.

Now in 2025, Andrew is busy developing his own collections with his own unique vision, voice and language.

“It’s not about working as some conglomerate – this is a form of discreet, private luxury that is also democratic and creative. My Milan studio is not a new start as such, more the summation of years of work and ideas. Maybe a way of rounding things up”.

Note: This text was subject to editing.

(Andrew Bannis identifies a person of Black-British Latin-Carribean and African descent).

Milan, 2025.