Emma Watson wearing William Tempest

The word phenomenon is one that gets bandied around a lot, all too frequently to describe people, places and objects that aren’t really phenomenal at all. But in William Tempest’s case, you’ll just have to forgive us. His rise to fashion’s top table has come at lightning speed, with celebrities, colleagues and critics queuing up to tell the world how wonderful he is. Just a few weeks ago, Pussycat Dolls singer, Nicole Sherzinger was telling the London Evening Standard’s ES magazine about how good Tempest pieces make her feel. ‘I love dressing up,’ she enthused. ‘There’s nothing like a bit of glamour to boost your confidence. William Tempest dresses make me feel like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman.’ That’s quite the compliment for a man who, lest we forget, has only just turned 25. So who is the person behind this fashion phenomenon? A tailoring whizz with an even sharper business brain like Tom Ford? Or a flamboyant showman like former Dior designer, John Galliano. The answer, as it turned out, was neither.

Standing at the centre of a swirling sea of press, PR girls, models and fashion students in the Body Shop store on London’s Oxford Street, five days before fashion week, the diminutive Tempest appeared remarkably calm, despite – or perhaps in spite of – his stormy name. His A/W11 show would be his first since he decamped to New York last year, just two years after setting up his own label following stints at John Charles de Castelbajac in Paris and with Giles Deacon in London. Like Giles, he’s unassuming, approachable and charming, and has a soft, Northern twang when he speaks. He looks a little bit like Gareth Gates, albeit with snappier dress sense, and has a similarly shy manner. Nonetheless, Tempest is no lightweight. His most recent show was the sixth in a career that has seen him dress the likes of Emma Watson and create bespoke pieces for Madonna. His latest venture, and the reason why we’re in the Body Shop, is a collaboration he’s working on with the ethical beauty brand and the London College of Fashion. Another unexpected twist in the tale then? Well, not quite.

‘I’m a vegetarian,’ he explains, ‘so it’s really important to me to know that no animals were hurt making these products. The ingredients are 100 percent natural too.’ The products he’s referring to are part of The Body Shop’s S/S11 make-up range which was used to create the beauty look for models Amber Le Bon, Jude Pinol and Camilla Babington in his A/W11 presentation video, Dia Anna. ‘For me make-up is what completes the look,’ adds Tempest. ‘The Body Shop’s sustainable and cruelty-free make-up range allowed us to create the fresh, effortless and glowing feel we wanted and I’m so happy with the results.’ He should be, because ‘Dia Anna’ is simply beautiful.

From sculptural coats worked up using floral, tapestry fabric to the tough leather jackets worn over delicate, washed-silk column dresses, and the crinoline-inspired panels that were one of the collection’s central motifs, Tempest’s A/W11 collection had plenty to love. Red, one of London’s hottest colour trends, wasn’t left out either, but what carmine there was, was made striking by juxtaposition with minimalist neutrals such as black and nude. Feminine, wearable and displaying a maturity rarely seen in a twenty-something; ‘Dia Anna’ was a world away from the teeny pastels and pop socks shown by London’s other bright young thing, Henry Holland.

William Tempest Autumn/Winter 2011

While Holland is pure pop culture, both in the pieces he creates and the lifestyle he leads, the cerebral, unassuming Tempest is something else altogether. He takes a considered view of tough issues surrounding sourcing and production, and has been quietly making what most of us would call ‘eco-fashion’ for years. Not that he makes much of it. ‘With my own brand, all the fabrics are natural and are produced to high ethical standards but it’s not something I focus on getting across [to people],’ he says. ‘People tend to expect that green fashion will be ugly but it’s something that we all could do. You can do really creative things with natural materials.’Along with his vegetarianism and interest in animal welfare, it’s his ethical principles that have made his work with The Body Shop such a natural step.

And it’s this forward-looking attitude that has seen him searching for new ways to get his message across, whether via the medium of video or online. ‘I’ve been doing some work with Vogue.com in the run up [to the show],’ explains Tempest. ‘The whole online thing is huge and you have to get it right every time. It’s a really different way of doing things and everyone wants explore it.’

Exploring and pushing the boundaries with each new venture, scheme or collection has become something of a signature for Tempest, whose last A/W collection was inspired by the Queen of Sheba and referenced Islamic architecture down to the onion-dome shaped skirts and the arabesque frills arcing across the front of his dresses. Tempest is certainly not a man who does things by halves and Dia Anna, with its multiple references to 17^th Century witch trials, was no exception. But then, this kind of uncompromising dedication is exactly what you’d expect from a 25-year-old phenomenon. William Tempest might be less than three years into his career, but on current form, there’s plenty more to come from Cheshire’s favourite son.