Meet Tiger-Lily, 25-year-old British designer, proud Northerner, and founder of the Tora-Lily brand.

When family memories and an upbringing in the North of England are put at the forefront of a brand giving boldness and edge: this is the story of how one Mancunian family girl started to catch the eyes of the fashion industry.

With a childhood rooted in creativity and spent drawing designs in school notebooks, Tiger-Lily has been living and breathing fashion design since she was a little girl. And after studying graphics at university, followed by fashion enterprise, and eventually getting her own studio in London, her newborn brand, Tora-Lily, has taken off, now being seen on the likes of Leomie Anderson, Camila Cabello, Kourtney Kardashian and Julia Fox – to name a few.

I recently caught up with the Manchester-born seamstress to discuss how much of her own family life and upbringing has influenced her designs, as she told me why she thinks more people should support smaller designers in today’s fashion climate.

Tora-Lily is a name that is starting to get the flowers it deserves, but its roots have long been forming since Tiger’s childhood. Growing up, Tiger was surrounded by design, art, photography, and a family life full of creative inspiration. Her dad’s collection of design books and vintage magazines dating back to the 1970s became a huge inspiration for her creative process growing up, and after using her time in lockdown during Covid to work on her sewing and refine the vision for her design process, Tora-Lily started to slowly take shape as a brand.

“You can’t really say your passion is fashion if you can’t sew or make clothes, so that’s what made me create Tora-Lily.”

Family memories and archived photo albums have made their way to the forefront of her collections, with most of her prints made up of old family photos, which she says she likes to flick through for inspiration. And coming from a working-class background in the north of England, with representation in the fashion industry being fairly few and far between, she sees her designs as a chance to represent her background through her own eyes growing up.

“I get a lot of inspiration from my family. I like to include family photos in my designs to represent them.”

And while the fashion industry and trend forecasts are constantly refreshing, keeping at the top of everyone’s radar without side-stepping your own vision seems to be the perfect balancing act. It’s a matter of retaining brand authenticity whilst still making the moves to get yourself noticed, and its one that Tiger manages to keep well balanced. Tiger is saying that yes, it’s fine to follow trends, and many can remind people of styles that otherwise would be left in the archives, but just because something is not in trend doesn’t mean it isn’t ‘cool’ - there is still plenty of room for brands that go against the curve.

The rise in online trend forecasting in the new age of social media has birthed a fashion industry that has a consumerist and fast-fashion focus in mind – a heavy weight to bare for a smaller label like Tora-Lily. Small businesses can suffer in the world of mass production, and people can easily forget how much hard work costs when fast-fashion prices bring forward cheap as chip rates. And with the risk of poor exposure when the main advertising platform is filled with countless other brands, Tiger must rely on her own drive to give her brand the exposure it deserves.

But that, too, can come at a cost. Brands can heavily rely on influencer engagement to create buzz around their collections, but Tiger has found that putting 100% of your trust into a stranger on the internet often leads to disappointment. Influencers regularly reach out to the designer for a free item from Tora-Lily that they’ll promote on their socials, but she’ll often never get the post they promised, and her hard work has been handed out with no reward. It’s a free outfit for them and no exposure for Tiger.

“I see lots of designers that are good that don't get the attention they deserve. If I'm honest I think it takes luck to become an 'It' designer.”

When asked about her opinion on the current state of the fashion industry, it all comes down to sustainability. Supporting smaller brands and funding up-and-coming designers can keep the fashion world’s cogs turning much better than a huge conglomerate can – but are we in an age where the mainstream, wallet-focused side of the industry could start taking over?

It's up to consumers to step away from the mainstream and support the more under the radar areas of the fashion industry that have the most authentic vision. Not only does it support teams of creatives and ateliers behind the designs, but it supports an authentic design process at its heart – one that requires a lot of thought from sketch to sewing machine, and one that we are losing to the mainstream.

“I think the current state of the fashion industry is a bit of a mess.”

The future of Tora-Lily will be a product of hard graft and deep hustle, but this is something that Tiger is no stranger to on her journey as a designer so far. It’s a question of consistently making new designs until she gets the notice she deserves. Authenticity is at the heart of Tora-Lily, and she has strived to stay true to her vision, creating collections that are getting noticed on the red carpet, and that her Northern heritage would be proud to be a part of.