Staff Only: Q&A with Shirley
We give you an insight into members of the Oaf family, our team members tell us what they do, what they are into and not so into.
Meet Shirley our Creative Lead and previously Design Manager for 3 and a half years. Shirley heads our small design team which are responsible for creating the pieces we all lust after. The design process begins with developing stories and concepts with extensive research before a sketch and development process read on to find out more…
Introduce yourself...
I’m Shirley, Design manager at Oaf & proud owner of two naughty rabbit lads (Malcolm & Dewey).
How long have you worked at Oaf?
3 and a half years which in some ways has flown by but I also feel like I’ve done so many things…
Describe yourself in 3 words…
Cute Animal Addict
What are you wearing right now?
Lazy Oaf Don’t stare knitted jumper, sweatpants from BootBoyBiz & Nike sliders. Only elasticated waistbands in lockdown!
What’s your favourite Oaf piece, ever?
Probably the Payday check jacket & pants set from Out of Oaffice, I like how it’s smart but Oaf and the fabric is soooo nice.
What’s the first thing you’d do if you were Prime Minister for a day?
Reverse Brexit- Can I do that? And increase nurses wages.
What fact about you would surprise us?
I am seriously good at whistling.
If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?
I keep having dreams about Tokyo, I’m desperate to go again!
If you could swap lives with one person for a day, who would you pick?
Donald Trump, I’d donate all my money & do a lot of apologising and scrub my face to see what’s under that orange.
"There’s so many projects I’m excited about this year, we’re revisiting one of my favourite collaborations and the theme is amazing 👀
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What’s on your Lockdown #3 playlist?
Afro B- Drogba
Chance the Rapper – Acid rap (full album)
Christine and the Queens- La Vita Nuova
What’s your favourite show to binge watch?
Malcolm in the middle- hence the rabbit names & Come dine with me
If you were an emoji, which one would you be?
😎 (sometimes sarcastically)
What’s your Favourite..
Book – The knife of never letting go by Patrick Ness
Podcast – changes all the time, but I love Ear hustle, Homo Sapiens & Off Menu
Place - Glastonbury festival
Movie – The Naked Gun
Take us behind the scenes, what’s a day in the life of Shirley like?
Wake up, feed my rabbits and let them loose in the house.
Make myself a large coffee, take some vitamins (really swearing by VD at the moment)
Get to work (in my home office currently), answer some emails (hopefully not too many), then check in with my team….then I might be researching, designing, planning our next collection or making techpacks.
Inevitably telling off the rabbits for chewing something, running behind the sofa or chasing each other (in what I determine to be a mean way)
Have some lunch with my boyfriend, ‘how’s your day going?’ ‘how’s life in the living room?’ etc, sometimes go for a little walk although I get to Thursday and realise I haven’t left the house all week more often than I’d like to admit…
Back to work, maybe listen to a little podcast as I draw up some ideas or CADS, drink about 18278172817 cups of tea.
Make dinner, I love cooking whilst watching something really trashy, previously real housewives, but I’ve weened myself off that, and now watch something like come dine with me or married at first sight. In the first lockdown, I started making sourdough bread and baking (a lot of) cakes and having that distraction from what was going on in the world was a really lovely escape.
Watch something on telly, probably spend an hour looking through Netflix hunting for a great documentary but end up watching old episodes of Always sunny in Philadelphia. Or I’ve been trying to do some painting in my free time, so might spend an hour or two on this, it’s been really nice to get a bit creative again in my spare time, now that socialising or going to the pub is not on the cards!
Say Goodnight to the rabbits, after attempting to give them a brush.
Read a little bit of whatever book I’ve got on the go
Sleep!!
What’s the best bit of design for you?
So many things it’s hard to choose! We design collections so far off the launch date, so I love shooting the campaign as it gets me really excited about the designs coming out now, when my heads been looking at a year and a half in advance…I also love seeing people wearing our clothes and being excited about our designs, that always makes me really happy.
What are the worst bits?
Hitting a creative block! Some days it’s hard to think of ideas or picture what people will want to wear in nearly two years time, it’s tricky with Covid as when we were all in the studio we could bounce ideas off each other but working from home you don’t have that luxury…. Fashion can be hard work too, as with all things creative you kind of put your heart and soul into things so if things don’t come out as you planned it can be frustrating, but that’s what makes life interesting and I like the challenge.
And lastly, what designs should we get excited about in the future?
There’s so many projects I’m excited about this year, we’re revisiting one of my favourite collaborations and the theme is amazing…..and October 2021 marks Lazy Oaf’s 20th anniversary, so we’ve designed a special Birthday collection - think reworked Oaf shapes in luxe fabrics alongside iconic styles from our history.
