In this Heroes piece, Petra Börner pays tribute to Sherald Lamden, her effortlessly cool and achingly talented first boss, and founder of the fashion label Seraph.
I stumbled into the world of Seraph by chance when, on my year out from studying fashion at St Martins, a friend suggested I look up the label for work experience.
My interview was held in Sherald Lamden’s living room-turned office and I was hit by the fluoro, Spirograph world of bleached streaky denimwear and cool, ‘Go Get It’ girls. I got the ‘position’ after a brief chatty interview, showing my drawings, feeling very awkward, shy and inexperienced, but leaving with my head in the clouds. I’m still not the cool type when the stakes are high.
My first day was spent charging around East London’s backstreets with tulle and denim rolls on my shoulders. Fair to say, I’d entered the company at bottom rank, especially since Neil Gilks, the other (first) assistant beat me to it and started the day before. Back in the studio it was buzzing, Sherry making sure everyone kept their spirits up, Radiohead blasting, Babe (the bulldog) sleeping in the corner, fittings in progress.
Sherry was an incredibly attractive girl in an effortless sort of way, having modelled before starting out as a designer, with a bag full of exciting experiences from fashion houses including Margiela and John Galliano, and always with string of admirers about. In fact past partners and friends were always keen to help and support her.
At the time I joined Seraph, she’d launched the label as the little sister to GHOST with support from Tanya Sarne, but was now intent to go solo. When working, her ways seemed effortless and natural, her design decisions precise, but always happy to invite other creatives into the mix.
It was exciting to experience the bridging of art forms including music, printmaking, painting, film and performance into dynamic fashion collections and loud, riotous shows, always in a music box, rock, and intensely moody sort of vein.
The studio was a crowded and buzzing place, with people who seemed to be learning on the job, loving their time in-house. Sherry might have had a knack for picking people without the right skills, but somehow it all came together.
With her kind heart, but tough love she got what she needed done without much confrontation. A vegetarian, more attached to animals than humans, she took in Tilly, a rescue Staffordshire to be the sidekick to Babe, her bulldog. This would prove challenging at times and more than once Sherry had to go at them with a broom.
She had a real sense of cool, a tomboy girl with a passion for the baggy, oversized, with proud shoulders, well suited to her lean features. The look was adopted by studio girls, it spread to the IT girls, before going on to become ‘the’ cool look and making Seraph a leader in young British fashion.
Never intimidated by fashion or labels, Sherry would cut tags right out of newly purchased Comme des Garçons T-shirts. Flat (men’s) shoes for her, glittered heels for the models, the ‘wedge’ being a re-occurring favourite. She‘d plan her collections with tiny drawings that she never seemed to really enjoy making – her strength was always hands-on, through discussions, and draping and chopping bits off garments.
A hippyish city girl, waking and working in the same place with a bathtub full of cloth, broom in hand, doing the menial tasks to get on with her planning her work. Sometimes seemingly unfocused we’d all demand her attention for decisions and she would rise to the task as if commanded. Time with her was always precious and rare. Sherry was always making sure people were at ease, brewing teas and feeding us, but lurking underneath was a threatening feeling of living hand to mouth. Somehow sponsors would always appear to save the day just in time.
Now admittedly having consulted my dear friend Neil Gilks, I (we) must end that in our mid twenties we felt we couldn’t WAIT to reach Sherry’s age (then thirty-six) and to be as accomplished. She seemed so together whilst striving to make things work for her. Her friends/lifestyle/creativity/spirit/intelligence was everything we longed for – everything we wanted to achieve.
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