Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2016 | Page 22

Photo: Weardowney catwalk show in 2007

fashion industry – and never went back to
the college.
“As a model you can be a bit of a spy” she
says. “The role itself demands nothing
from you, but you absorb so much from
the people you meet – and I met a lot!”
To while away the endless hours of
sitting about during photo shoots, Gail
would indulge her creativity by knitting
incessantly, and this continued even after
she joined the London’s famous Select
Model Agency when she was 19, and went
on to become the top earner on their
books.
“People always refer to the modelling
as glamorous, but I really never had any
ambitions to be a model at all” she says.
“For me, it was all about learning the
fashion industry.”
By the age of 23, having given birth to
her first child, James, she reckoned it was

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time for a career change.
“I had tramlines under my eyes and
thought my modelling days were probably
over” she quips.
By this time she’d already been noticed
for her knitting skills by the fashion
designer John Galliano, who had seen
her on fashion shoots. He asked her to
produce some of his knitted designs –
which is how she came to crop off her
long hair, give up on the thought of
modelling and go to work in his London
studio for £60 a week - a fraction of what
she’d been commanding as a model.
As soon as she started producing his
designs, though, she recalls: “I realised
this was something rather special, and
wasn’t really surprised when John and I
were literally mobbed by buyers wanting
them.
Gail carried on working for Galliano for

six years, and recalls it as a fantastically
creative period.
“I had to climb inside his brain and preempt what he was doing – by the time
he told me, I’d knitted half of it already. I
considered that to be a great gift, to be
able to work with somebody like that.”

Branching out
By 1989 Gail was mum to her second
son, Eddie, and decided the time was
right to launch out as a fashion designer
in her own right. That was when she set
up a fashion label with her sister-in-law –
although it proved a short-lived enterprise
at that stage, thanks to the ensuing
recession.
However, she proved her ability to
bounce back by training as an actor, whilst

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