Despite being a crucial element of the construction process, pattern cutting is often a part of garment-making that many don’t think about. Pattern-cutter Carla Diogo tells us more...
Written by Nicole Vassell
For Carla Diogo, everything started with a design technology lesson. The Bristol-based pattern cutter has created templates for several brands for over a decade. As well as providing sewing and tailoring classes for budding and experienced needleworkers, Diogo has also launched her own self-titled made-to-order clothes brand, putting her fashion construction expertise to direct use. Now in her mid-30s, she is fulfilled in her work combining creativity and technical construction, as well as being a mother of two. But before all this, a sewing class while at secondary school in London was the first step. “I was so intrigued by the mechanics of how things came together,” she explains. “I was fascinated, and just wanted to do it more and more.” As we talk over the phone, the sound of her sewing machine whirs intermittently in the background. She’s working on a new commission for an independent fashion brand, and while juggling so many projects at once, every minute counts.
After school, Diogo took her interest in working with fabrics further and studied a BTEC at the London College of Fashion. Then, she took a variety of tailoring jobs, gaining experience as well as the money to travel before eventually finding her way to university full-time in her early 20s. “All of my friends were graduating and getting ‘proper jobs', so I thought, ‘fine, I’ll do it too’,” she says. Though at a slightly later age than her peers, Diogo returned to study at the London College of Fashion and left at the age of 25 with a degree in Fashion Design Technology and plenty of experience. After gaining skills working at Matthew Williamson, she later began a seven-year stint as a fashion cutter at Orla Kiely, a fashion brand known for their bold, floral-inspired prints.
SEWING ENGINEERING
Though many who have ambitions of working in fashion gravitate towards sewing and designing, it’s much rarer to hear of people with goals of pattern cutting – to the extent that many people outside of the business have no clue what the job is. “I’m always having to explain what I do to people,” Diogo says. “They don’t know what I mean when I say ‘pattern cutter.' They’re like, ‘What? So
