Boudicca
Biography
BOUDICCA is the London based design duo, Zowie Broach and Brian Kirkby. BOUDICCA wasstarted in 1997 as a purely artistic expression showing in art galleries and other exhibition spaces for its first 4 years until in 2001 BOUDICCA was invited by the British Fashion Council to present officially during London fashion week.
BOUDICCA is named after the ancient revolutionary queen from approximately 60AD whofought the Romans ferociously and burnt London to the ground. Still today archeologists refer to a red layer underneath London as the "BOUDICCAlayer" and a romantic Thornycroft vision, a grand statue, of Queen Boudicca (AKA Boadicea) and her daughters sits outside the Houses of Parliament.
BOUDICCA is a design house respected for its integrity, depth of design and attention to detail. BOUDICCA offers collections that are deeply researched and designed while beautifully executed in the finest European fabrics, all with serious attention to the fit and finish of each garment. These are garments that are to be worn for a life time and are produced in limited quantities, allowing the wearer to feel a high level of exclusivity in what she owns. BOUDICCA is antimass. There is a masculine/feminine tension in its work that makes each BOUDICCA collection innately feminine yet appealingly androgynous at times through superbly constructed tailoring.
BOUDICCA has always been involved in the arts, giving regular talks at the Tate Modernin London, as well as having collaborated on projects with artists such a Gillian Wearing, architect David Adjaye and film director Mike Figgis. In 2007BOUDICCA was invited to design the Christmas tree at the Victoria & AlbertMuseum, a highly respected privilege among British designers. Recent exhibitions in 2008 include BOUDICCA outfits in ‘Skin & Bones' at Somerset House and ‘Fashion & Sport' at the Victoria & Albert museum in London.
BOUDICCA was the first Independent British fashion house to be officially invited to become a guest member of Haute Couture in Paris and showed its first HauteCouture collection in January 2007 to rave reviews. This was an incredible moment of recognition for BOUDICCA's work and journey over the past decade to develop and hone its skills as true tailors and designers on a couture level. Its second Haute Couture collection shown in Paris in January 2008 secured BOUDICCA's position as a valuable contributor to the highest echelon of fashionand led the way to further explore the ‘art of dress', the space between Haute Couture and Ready to Wear.