Creativity Meetup - Sam D'Cruze - "Making to make a difference"

Cambridge Creativity Meetup

SAM D’CRUZE - "Making to make a difference"

We are very excited to welcome Sam D’Cruze for yet another amazing Cambridge Creativity talk!

Please join us on Zoom on Tuesday January 19th at 6pm.
Format: 45' talk - 15' Q&A - 30' Open chat between participants.
PLEASE RSVP - the zoom link will be visible to RSVP attendees.
Meeting passcode: 0000

For as long as she can remember, Sam D’Cruze has been making, stitching and expressing herself through art & design as a personal form of escapism. But after the death of her father, she decided that “just making” was not enough: by turning her fashion design business into a purpose-driven one, Sam choses to make in order to make a difference.

Her story is a very inspirational one:

Sam graduated from Central St Martins in 1997 with a BA (hons) in Womenswear Design, from which she embarked on a successful career in the fashion industry, working with high fashion designers such as David Koma, Hardy Amis and iconic British brands like Jaeger & Jasper Conran.

A break from full-time employment to raise her family turned into the start of a new freelance career in design and pattern cutting, which led her and her husband to launch their own label in 2010: Darkest Star was born. Starting off experimenting with accessories and textiles print, inspired by a ’Study of an Orchid’, the label was initially picked up by Sam Roddick of Coco De Mer and evolved into an edgy womenswear label. From there, Darkest Star dressed the likes of Bella & Gigi Hadid, Mary J Blige & Madonna, appeared in the pages of Vogue, Elle and V Mag to name but a few, was exhibited at London Fashion Week and was stocked in high end boutiques around the world. All the pieces were designed, cut and made by Sam, with support from local artisans, whilst her husband became the brand’s photographer developing a strong visual identity.

But in 2015, the loss of Sam’s father as a consequence of alcoholism gave her story a different turn. During London Fashion Week in Feb 2018, Sam felt that everything she had been working towards over the past 20 years somehow appeared meaningless, and that she no longer wanted to pursue the traditional wholesale and seasonal business model known to the fashion industry.

After a recalibration break, Darkest Star is now set for rebirth in Spring 2021 as a purpose-driven design house: whilst maintaining its edginess, the label is now dedicated to deepening the respect of slow fashion and the making process. It is also set to raise funds for a new art project called ‘Child Of’, which is aimed at breaking the cycle of addiction in a creative and contemporary way through storytelling: by opening up the conversation via a creative platform focusing on creativity, mentorship & e-commerce, the aims are to offer a deeper understanding of the impact of addiction, to support those touched by addiction and to raise funds for NACOA, the National Association of Children of Alcoholics.

More information is available on Sam’s website: https://www.samdcruze.com/

For this very special meetup we feel very privileged to have Sam sharing a personal story of how creativity becomes stronger when it acts for a purpose, and we hope to see many of you there to get inspiration from it and to support Sam’s new project.

PLEASE RSVP - the zoom link will be visible to RSVP attendees.
Meeting passcode: 0000

For any question, please contact Sacha K. via Meetup or email:
CambridgeCreativity@gmail.com