Fabrics, Fables & Front Rows with David Longshaw

June 9, 2025

Meet David Longshaw: designer, illustrator, and storyteller. From fashion fabric mice and children's tales for grown-ups to London Fashion Week, David blurs the line between runway and sketchbook. Now one half of the dynamic duo behind LONGSHAW WARD, his world is filled with embroidered narratives, eccentric characters, and wildly creative collabs. We caught up with him to learn more about his love of fashion, fabric mice, and the fine art of faffing.

“I’ve loved drawing, designing and faffing around with fabric for as long as I can remember,” he says. “Fashion seemed like the path where I could play with lots of other disciplines – art, animation, storytelling.” As a teenager, David took matters into his own hands, attending a Central Saint Martins open day after discovering many of his design heroes had studied there. “I heard it was super creative, but didn’t teach much technical stuff, so I started learning how to pattern draft… It was me and about 15 middle-aged ladies in an adult education centre in Manchester. It was great.”

After graduating from the RCA, he jumped straight into the deep end: “I graduated on a Friday and by Monday I was in Italy, designing for Alberta Ferretti.” It was there he met his wife Kirsty – “she sat in front of me in the studio” – who now co-designs the label LONGSHAW WARD alongside him. “We were both working internationally, barely seeing each other – so it just made sense to create together. It’s much more fun.”

His work has always balanced the fantastical with the wearable. At Saint Martins, legendary tutor Howard Tangye encouraged him to write stories alongside his design work – enter Maude the Mouse. “She ended up in Vogue, LOVE, and even sewing a bra at a vintage machine made entirely out of Triumph lingerie,” he laughs. “That led to a long collab with John Smedley.”

David’s creativity knows no bounds. “I’ve illustrated windows for Matches, drawn directly onto glass for Yauatcha in Soho, and even turned characters into fabric sculptures dressed in my pieces. I love a fun collaboration.” Whether it’s a print, a window display, or a macaroon box, David’s characters have a way of popping up everywhere.

Despite the whimsical aesthetic, the drive behind his work is serious. “Working on lots of different projects keeps me inspired. While I’m drawing, I get ideas for garments… or even little stories I want to write and illustrate.” He finds energy from the wider creative world too. “I love going to galleries, and listening to authors, filmmakers and other creatives talk about their process.”

He describes his design style as “Impractical outerwear, studies with sheer and texture. Surface decoration and embroidery.”

When it comes to influences, David reflects on a diverse range of creators who have shaped his approach to design and storytelling. “When I was at school, I loved the work of artist Paula Rego, Egon Schiele, director Tim Burton, and the usual suspects designer-wise – Westwood, Galliano, McQueen, Lacroix – all storytellers in their own ways. Aesthetically, my work is probably quite different to all of them, but what I was drawn to is the idea that fashion could be inspired by more than just ‘think pink’ or ‘this season it’s all about the 1970s’.”

David also highlights the influence of his hands-on experience: “I did some work experience at Hussein Chalayan before I started CSM, which was really inspiring as he straddles so many fields from design, to art and film.”

His education further nurtured his unique style, thanks to mentors such as Howard Tangye, former FIDA judge, and Julie Verhoeven. “I was lucky to have been taught by the brilliant Howard Tangye at CSM and Julie Verhoeven at the RCA, who have both inspired my style.”

Beyond these early influences, David continues to admire a broad spectrum of creatives today, including Jon Klassen, Simone Rocha, Oliver Jeffers, Chris Haughton, Jacky Marshall, Chemena Kamali – with whom he designed at Ferretti – Jacky Blue, Eudon Choi, Matthieu Blazy, Ann Cleeves, Daniel Roseberry, Mick Herron, and Alan Bennett. “There are a lot of others…” he adds, “but these are some of the voices and talents that keep me thinking and evolving.”

Currently, he’s working on the next LONGSHAW WARD collection and a new book series. “It’s got a children’s book vibe, but with amazing outfits. I plan to combine it with fashion.”

Storytelling has always run alongside David Longshaw’s design process. “I’d been creating little stories to inspire my collections since my time at CSM,” he explains. “I loved the idea of building my own world I could dip into for design inspiration.” His first fashionable children’s tales for grown-ups featured Maude – a fashion fabric mouse who’s appeared everywhere from Vogue to the London Fashion Week newspaper, and even in animated shorts for LOVE magazine. Styled like classic children’s books but narrated by a sharp-tongued fabric fashion editor, they’re as much satire as storybook. Then there’s the infamous Fashion B – “an alphabet book with a diva posing in the shapes of letters,” says David, “and her poor assistant Little Pap – a pot-bellied blue rabbit with a camera, inspired by all the fashion assistants I saw frantically chasing shots of their influencer bosses. I thought, that could be fun for a book.”

And of course, there’s always illustration. “Yes, I draw every day. Some days it's for LONGSHAW WARD, some days it's a character or embroidery idea. I also draw with the sewing machine on garments, freehand embroidering flowers merging in to birds, stick insects or spaceships. That keeps it exciting... One of my first published illustrations was a tribute to Isabella Blow for The London Fashion Week Newspaper – she had worn some of my CSM pieces when she was Fashion Director at Tatler. I drew Maude and her tipsy side-kick Doris, having afternoon tea whilst wearing Isabella Blow images as hats, as she was known for wearing incredible Philip Tracy millinery, having discovered him."

In David Longshaw’s world, fashion isn’t just worn – it’s read, drawn, stitched, and brought to life with eccentric characters, boundless imagination, and a healthy dose of faffing-with-flair.