Sam McCoach

Name, where are you from?
Sam McCoach, Edinburgh in Scotland.

What do you do?
I’m a designer.

Describe your style in three words?
Simple, classic, uniform.

What made you get into designing?
When I was doing a foundation course at Edinburgh, I was always going to do painting or fine art but I’ve always just loved clothes. I’ve always loved dressing up in my mum’s clothes, my granny’s clothes. Not in terms of designer stuff, I just genuinely liked going up the town after school and shopping. Someone suggested that I should apply for the fashion course and it just started from there really.

Why do you think Le Kilt and Fred Perry make such good collaborators?
I think I see the Fred Perry girl and the Le Kilt girl as part of the same family tree. The reason I wanted to work at Fred Perry – and it was my first job after university – was because of that identifiable, uniform style, and the appropriation of that. I was always interested in why people wear things and how people adopt an identifiable piece and make it their own. It’s this idea that relates to both Le Kilt and Fred Perry. I think the overall aesthetic is similar. I see them both as being aspirational – maybe just worn at different stages of life. I’ve got two little sisters who are 18 and 19 who have only now just started to think "Oh Le Kilt’s cool – my sister is doing something cool." That is part of the end goal I think.

What was the inspiration behind the collection?
The collab looks at the two key identifiable pieces that bind them together. The kilt is very similar to a tennis skirt in a lot of ways. Tennis is in Fred Perry’s culture, but the style has also been brought to the street. That is when a tennis skirt becomes a little wrap skirt, just reinterpreted in a different way. I see the kilt in the same way – it’s just a really cool skirt that is easy and adaptable for every woman to wear. Just like the Fred Perry Shirt.

How would you describe the Le Kilt girl?
What I love about what I do is that it always surprises me. Everyone really makes it their own. Essentially what I’m doing is making uncomplicated product for people to interpret as their own. And it’s amazing to hear about how people wear things in different ways.

Sam McCoach founded Le Kilt after her granny’s handmade kilts sparked a passion for traditional techniques and craftsmanship.

View the latest Le Kilt Collaboration