Meet Hannah Soukup, The Designer Behind Sandy Powell’s BAFTAs Suit Trousers
We all watched as Sandy Powell made history as the first Costume Designer to receive the BAFTA Fellowship. And if you’re a fan of great design, you were certainly a fan of the shape, structure and details of the suit Sandy wore to the ceremony. And then wow-ed by the quick change of removing the jacket for the after party.
New York-based Hannah Soukup is the designer behind the chic suit trousers. Soukup grew up in rural West Virginia and completed her BFA in Apparel Design at the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating with honors in 2013. She has worked as a designer for Thom Browne, Chado Ralph Rucci and Iris van Herpen, and as a freelance designer in textile research, development, and design, honing her depth of exploration of technique and craftsmanship in Haute Couture and broad technical skills. She is a CFDA approved recipient and she has shown her work as a finalist for The Supima Design Competition at Lincoln Center, New York Mercedes Benz Fashion Week and the International 3D Print Show in Paris and New York.
Costumes & Coffee caught up with Hannah to dish on the deets of Sandy’s look and more. Keep reading to check out the Q&A.
Congratulations on having your designs worn by the legendary Sandy Powell and seen by so many people around the world. You’ve accomplished a lot so far in your career. How does this accomplishment feel?
I am incredibly honored to have Sandy Powell wear my trousers to receive her BAFTA Fellowship Award. It's definitely scary to create a personal look for a designer as knowledgeable as Sandy who knows absolutely everything about garments, construction, and history. It's intimidating, but in the best possible way that pushes me to grow. It means more than I know how to put into words that she likes my work and has been so welcoming.
What was the driving force for you to embark on a career in fashion and styling?
Fashion felt like a synthesis of my many various interests and background in music, printmaking, textiles, and art. I transferred to RISD on scholarship for printmaking but had applied secretly wanting to study apparel design, which I ultimately switched to. I grew up spinning, weaving, knitting and sewing clothing and my mother made most of my siblings and my clothing for our first decade of life. I was always drawing clothing, but didn’t think my family would see it as a viable path as it seems like a rather fru-fru world.
A pivotal moment was at some point as a teeneager, I saw a short documentary of a Chado Ralph Rucci’s runway show and a peek into his inspiring atelier in NYC. His work was so much more than anything else I had seen at the time and it was a glimpse into a bigger world. I went on to apprentice for Ralph Rucci while at RISD and continued at Iris van Herpen, because I wanted to be a part of making clothing in a more sculptural realm.
How did you connect with Sandy Powell?
I met Sandy at a pop-up market in Brooklyn, where she ordered a few custom knitwear pieces for her personal wardrobe. It was natural because I honestly didn’t know who she was immediately, and so I was just being myself, showing her the interactive aspects of my knitwear designs as she tried them on. She was just one of the most exquisite people I have ever met and I was fluttery because she was the embodiment of the avant-garde, rare bird who I most envision in my more sculptural work.
What is the inspiration for her look?
The trousers are part of a current body of work I am developing. Even though the collection is not complete, I showed the trousers to Sandy as I thought they could look incredible on her. She loved them and was passing through NYC, so we did fittings for a custom pair for her. There was initially no event in mind, so while I was making her the trousers we were going back and forth with lots of ideas to make it into a full suit-look. Sandy reached out when she found out about the award, and I sent her the trousers while her longtime master tailor Ian Frazer Wallace sculpted the most beautifully tailored jacket to pair with them.
Are there any details you can share? (fabric, cut, etc.)
I was very aware that there would be other options for her to choose from and many established designers wanting to dress her, so I don’t feel like I fully knew, until a few days before, that she would actually wear our collaborative look.
How would you describe your personal sense of style, and how has your experience shaped that?
I am most drawn to complex simplicity. I have never seen fashion as just clothing because it can be a sculptural language that conveys a concept or be a performative or intimate experience to wear.
In my personal life, I wear almost solely vintage clothing, along with wearing many of my own toiles to test ideas and not let the prototypes go to waste. I learn so much from studying vintage garments and the various toiles represent moments in time and how much I am constantly refining ideas and fit.
As you think of next steps, where do you aspire to see your designs next?
I don't know where I fit in the fashion world as a whole, because even a lot of my dreams are very different from any example I can look to. What I do know, or rather what I have to keep saying to myself, is that I have to create this work, and it will lead me.
