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Colin's Column | Meeting Mandi Lennard, Fashion Polymath

Colin McDowell sits down with Mandi Lennard, a PR turned brand consultant who has built a unique position for herself at the intersection of emerging culture and London’s fashion scene.
Mandi Lennard | Source: Courtesy
By
  • Colin McDowell

LONDON, United Kingdom — Mandi Lennard is a singular figure on London's fashion scene. She is, in fact, a polymath and one who gives total commitment to everything she does. And she does a lot.

A fashion PR turned brand consultant, Mandi has built a solid industry reputation based upon her unique position at the intersection of emerging culture and fashion and her tireless support of fresh creative talent. She worked with Kim Jones, now menswear designer at Louis Vuitton, before he'd even graduated from Central Saint Martins. She supported Roksanda Ilincic in the early days of her business, helping to birth collaborations between the young designer and retailers like Whistles. And it's widely thought that it was Mandi's understanding of Gareth Pugh's unique approach, which she grasped long before anyone else, that resulted in his winning the prestigious Andam award in 2008.

London pulsates with innovative talent and this is what keeps me sane.

Looking back, her PR clients were nothing less than a roll call of a London era: Kim Jones, Roksanda Ilincic and Gareth Pugh, but also Pam Hogg, House of Holland, Nasir Mazhar, Aitor Throup, Cassette Playa, Zandra Rhodes and Fashion East, the city’s pioneering platform for emerging creative talent. Indeed, for many seasons, there wasn't a Fashion East show without at least one of her designers in it. And such was her ability spot new talent that stores as prestigious as Barneys New York have been known to ring her to ask who they should see at London Fashion Week.

Mandi was born and brought up in Leeds, a city known for its gritty Northern determination. The eldest of three sisters, she was educated at Harrogate Grammar School where she was particularly strong at maths. But though she was academically gifted, Mandi was frequently bored and, as a teenager, dressed up and went out clubbing almost every night. ‘‘I have a paranoia about being ordinary. I didn’t want to be ‘fabulous’ — I wanted to be the opposite of ordinary,” says Mandi. “I just didn’t want to be invisible and fashion allowed me to express my individuality.”

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Mandi’s mother was an artist and took her along on regular trips to London to see the major exhibitions. But there was always time for Oxford Street. “Oxford Street was the biggest treat in the world for me,” she admits. “And to this day I love it. I don’t care what anyone says. I still think it is the most exciting place in the world. It is brilliant because it is so varied. I remember when I was about fifteen going to Jean Machine and being thrilled that all the staff were on roller skates.”

Mandi moved to Paris when she was eighteen with the goal of becoming an interpreter. “That was the big plan. But I was a fantasist. It really wasn’t about the job at all. It was the press release in my head. I was a living press release for every new idea I had. I persuaded my dad that I could learn the language, but, instead, made a beeline for Benetton on the Champs-Élysées. That was the beginning: the place I learned franchising and how it worked,” she recalls. “I can say that I also learned the choreography of a collection: that certain things don’t necessarily work and have to be taken out or adapted. I also became aware that there were far too many styles in the shop and, in fact, way too much stock. I was so completely immersed that, even now, I can remember the codes for all the different styles.”

On her return to the UK, Mandi knew she wanted to continue to work in fashion retail, at either Joseph or Browns. It was Browns that gave her the job and a great deal more: "Mr and Mrs Burstein, the owners, were like Grandpa and Grandma to me," she recalls. "It was an amazingly exciting and fertile atmosphere — you were at the epicentre of the industry."

But it was while working with the legendary PR consultant, Marysia Woroniecka, that Mandi really found her calling. “At Browns, in my Gaultier suit, I could never really be myself. But with Marysia it was great — all she would say was: ‘Do it!’ I wasn’t very confident to begin with, but I soon learned because I was left to sink or swim.”

“Mandi is a force of nature,” Marysia Woroniecka declares. “And one of the most intuitive people I know. It is surprising that someone so extroverted is so observant. When she was with me, she was not just a permanent breath of fresh air. I could see that she was also a natural PR: imaginative, fearless but also subtle, energetic and with a great sense of humour!”

“PR is simple common sense and once you get that, it’s just a question of organisation,” says Mandi. “I knew I was good at it and when Marysia moved to New York I decided to go out on my own — a decision I have never regretted.” Her first office was a room above a garage, courtesy of Sydney Burstein. It had a desk with a computer bought by her mother and a rail for hanging clothing samples. She slept on the floor.

Her big break came when Browns telephoned her and asked her to help set up a sister store targeting a younger consumer. It was a stormy time and there were monumental battles, most of all over the name. Browns had decided on “Browns Focus,” but Mandi wanted to call it “Civilian,” a commentary on the fact that, in fashion, everybody copies everybody else and so people end up wearing a similar uniform. To Mandi, it was simple: “If you have the courage to wear your own choice you are a civilian, not a conscript. I thought it was a great name, but ultimately I had to give in.”

As her profile began to grow, Mandi signed a consulting contract with American toy company Mattel to work on Barbie, for which she has developed collaborations with style leaders like Cassette Playa, Christian Louboutin, Colette, Comme des Garçons, Gareth Pugh and Roksanda Ilincic. "Me and my sisters didn't believe in playing with dolls. We were more into cuddly toys really, so dolls had nothing to do with fashion for me. But Sarah Allan of Mattel finally persuaded me."

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As Sarah says, “Mandi’s great skill is marrying brands like ours with creative partners such as young and established designers for the benefit of both parties. The great value is that she always rises to challenges and comes up with amazing new ideas.”

Today, Mandi spends less time promoting young designers and is focused on building Mandi’s Basement, a fashion and creative consultancy launched in 2010. “I was overwhelmed with the demand for the designers I represented. Everyone wanted a piece of the action, plus I was bored of having a showroom. Having started a couple of consultancy jobs, I realised I was using a different skillset. It felt more bespoke, plus I love projects with a beginning, a middle and an end. Brands give me a budget and tell me to come up with something that will make some noise.”

“I’m an ideas and imagination person and yet, funnily enough, I was very good at science at school. And, even today, I think more like a science person than an arts person. But it is a really precious thing to be able to use your imagination no matter what you are working on.”

She counts Mattel, Katie Grand's Love magazine and MAC Cosmetics amongst her clients. Add to that her work with Dazed and Pop magazines — and the fact that she is also a London correspondent for V and V Man magazines — and you begin to realise why, as Roksanda Ilincic says, "There are no normal working hours with Mandi. She is available 24-7."

Mandi first moved her office to Shoreditch in East London in 1999, “when there wasn’t even a cashpoint in the locality. I felt that by moving East, the editors would have to make the effort to come and, in that respect, they would have to appreciate who the designers were.” And though today’s Shoreditch is full of investment bankers, there is still plenty of exciting creative talent in East London, she says.

“London's East End is still bursting with tantalising new talent; I'm living and working in the epicentre and know all the designers from going out around here, so I am in tune with what's out there and what's coming through. London pulsates with innovative talent and this is what keeps me sane.”

And seeing the remarkable progress made, in recent years, by London's young designers, she says: "London fashion has proved that it has beaten its devils from the past: it can deliver on time and designers now know how to build their brands. The British Fashion Council (BFC) has a great team that offers support at all levels. But I feel there are too many designers still working in a vacuum and I would like to see even more grassroots support," she adds. "I absolutely believe in mentoring and there is still not enough of it in my opinion. It's one of the most fulfilling things I do."

As Charlotte Bonny of Fashion Fringe — the first initiative to introduce the concept of mentoring to London fashion — recalls, “Mandi's mentoring offered our young designers refreshingly honest advice with a directness that sugar-coated nothing. For the designers, it was a priceless reality check. Mandi was honest, fair, inspiring and strangely moving.”

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