1948

Susie Lau is one of the world's most influential fashion bloggers.

She launched ‘Style Bubble’ back in 2006 and has since become one of the most important voices in fashion’s new media vanguard. Known for highlighting emerging designers and offering eloquent thoughts on the evolving fashion industry in Britian and beyond, Susie also uses her blog to showcase her truly unique sense of personal style. Effortlessly blending colour, texture, print and proportion, Susie’s look embodies the ‘anything goes’ spirit of her London hometown. And, as a recent outfit post of Susie in a Roberto Sanchez shirt, Christopher Kane skirt and Nike Lunar Hyperworkout trainers illustrates, no one styles sportswear better.

Next week, Susie will be one of the key Flyknit Collective innovators leading the Formfitting workshop at 1948. We spoke to her about personal style,  fashion provenance, and feeling the Fashion Week pressure.

Where did you grow up?

In London, in Finchley. A really boring part of London – the suburbs. I’ve literally lived in London all my life.

Were you into fashion from an early age?

Yeah, but I was more obsessed with personal style and cultivating how I looked. When I was a teenager I went to quite an academic girls’ school and it was quite strict. Everyone was under a lot of pressure, so the only way to vent was to play with clothes.

I grew up going to Camden a lot, and to vintage shops. Personal style was a really important part of my upbringing and that developed into fashion.

Did you always dress a bit differently?

Yeah, which is maybe because I travelled a lot, going back and forth between Hong Kong which is where my parents were from, and then eventually going to Japan and stuff. But London is also a really influential place just because it’s so eclectic. It’s probably one of the few cities where you can be comfortable pretty much walking around in anything and nobody really bats an eyelid.

Why did you decide to start a blog?

At the time I was working in advertising, which was just a boring job I fell into after graduating. So I just started the blog as a hobby on the side and it just grew. That was March 2006, and fashion blogging in the UK was quite underdeveloped in comparison to the US or Scandinavia.

How was your style evolved over the years? 

My personal style has probably changed a little bit, but then everyone’s does over the years. Maybe my style has mellowed a bit, but I’m still very experimental and I like playing with textures, prints, colours. I’m probably more interested in the origins of a garment than I used to be. I like really old pieces and textiles. And I probably look at the provenance and construction of garments more than I used to.

You often incorporate Nike pieces into your outfits. What is about sportswear that appeals to your aesthetic?

It’s more of a recent thing. When I was a teenager I loved wearing trainers with dresses, that was my ‘thing’. And then after Uni I shunned it for a while because I felt this weird pressure to be ladylike.

But now I’ve sort of found my style a bit more, and now I’m just like ‘Whatever, I’m just gonna wear trainers to Fashion Week’. There is a pressure in fashion to dress up, but for me it’s just about relaxing and being really comfortable and sportswear enables you to do that.

In general I don’t really like wearing one genre of clothing or looking ‘pretty’ from head to toe. I like to mix it up so sportswear is a good way of doing that. I like how sportswear fabrics have influenced fashion designers and sportswear has become trendy, but Nike it does it the best anyway, because they have the technology.

Is the technical aspect of shoes and clothing important to you?

It’s not that I necessarily require the technical aspects in my apparel and footwear but I appreciate any thought process that has gone into good design and in Nike products, good design and technological advancement usually go hand in hand.

What do you like about the Flyknit shoe? What would you personally wear it with?

I love everything about the shoe – the thought process behind the making of the shoe, the aesthetics, the functionality and also the sustainability aspect of it.  I’m so excited by the colourways of the shoe and the possibilities of the actual Flyknit material itself.  I’d wear the blue and neon ones with a Mexican embroidered dress I got in Mexico City.  I’d also wear them with an Antipodium lace skirt and a Christopher Kane brocade top.  I’ve been wearing my trainers with quite overtly feminine things for a while now.

What are you most looking forward to about working with Nike as part of the Flyknit Collective?

I’m really excited to see what the kids are going to come up with and how they will work with designers like Astrid and Carrie.  I also love the Patternity girls so I’m really excited to see the whole process of the workshop.

Portrait by Lauren Michelle Pires

Additional Imagery via stylebubble.co.uk

To apply for the next Flyknit Collective Workshop on PERFORMANCE, click here.