Julien Macdonald

Julien Macdonald

Julien Macdonald is a fashion designer from Wales, United Kingdom. He has appeared as one of the judges on the television show, Britain and Ireland’s Next Top Model. In 2001, Macdonald was awarded as the British Fashion Designer of the Year and around the same time, he was hired as the head designer at Givenchy. In 2006, he was awarded the Order of British Empire during the Birthday Honor of the Queen for his services to the fashion world.

His mother was a swimwear model and his father lived and worked on the farms owned by the family in South of Wales. The house that Julien grew up in was small and located in the Welsh Valleys, which is thirty minutes from the county town, Cardiff. Julien had an amazing countryside view and the area was only a few minutes away from the city. As a child, he wanted to be a painter like the artist Claude Monet.

Macdonald studied at Cyfarthfa High School located in Merthyr Tydfil, a place where he was born as well. He knows the art of knitting too, since his mother taught him the skill. Soon he became increasingly interested in the field of designing clothes. Alongside this, he was also passionate about dancing. However, he joined the Faculty of Arts and Architecture in Brighton to study textile designing. Afterwards, Macdonald became a pupil at the Royal College of Art and attained a Master’s Degree.

Shortly after his graduation, Macdonald was appointed by Karl Lagerfeld to work for the well-known label, Chanel. At the same time, he worked as a freelancer for Alexander McQueen and made knitwear for them. A year later, he was chosen by British Airways to redesign the uniform of their flight attendants.

His creations have been worn by Dannii Minogue, Dame Shirley Bassey, Beyoncé Knowles, Selena Gomez, Bonnie Tyler, Naomi Campbell, Carmen Electra, Geri Halliwell and Joel Richardson among others.

Julien Macdonald has been criticized for using fur extensively. According to him, his fur designs are the most sellable items and lucrative for his business. He also said once that his trade would collapse if he stopped using this material. In 2007, he was criticized again for using a lot of fur in his collection for the autumn season. This was just the start – when the designer delivered a rude statement against all those who are anti-fur use, there was an outrage. Despite all the negative remarks, the designer did not stop making fur items in fact told the world that he loved this natural fabric from animals.

Macdonald appeared on the media as well, as a judge on Project Runway‘s British version Project Catwalk, that aired on Sky One. Three years later, he was one of the celebrity participants on the program, Strictly Come Dancing.

Moving on, Julien is very good at sport. In fact, the designer prides himself on the skill of skiing. He goes mostly to Switzerland’s Verbier. In addition to this, he loves snowboarding. Apart from this, the thing he is not good at is cooking main course and meat. However he enjoys baking and decorating cakes for his friends’ parties and birthdays.

The designer has always been a fan of Andy Warhol‘s work. A book that changed him was The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald. By the way, he has a secret crush on the iconic woman, Marilyn Monroe. Macdonald is amused by the acting of Charlie Chaplin.

Julien Macdonald describes his life as exciting, fast-paced, crazy, colorful, interesting and also highly demanding.