JOYCE Ridings is one of fashion's best kept secrets. She doesn't make a big deal about what she does. She doesn't court publicity or hunger for accolades. Joyce just gets on quietly with doing what she does best: designing spare, easy clothes in fabulous fabrics. Such modesty has done the Derbyshire based designer no harm, for word of mouth has proved remarkably fruitful since she launched her eponymous label four years ago.
Joyce Ridings's clothes reflect her personality. They don't scream "look at me". They are quiet, refined, subtly coloured separates that have an in built flexibility to co ordinate with most things in a woman wardrobe.
"They're clothes for women who have discovered themselves, women who want clothes to enhance themselves and feel comfortable with the effect," she explains.
At the heart of Joyce's work is her feel for fabrics - a sensitivity she acquired in Manchester where she studied fashion in the 1960s. "We were taught patience - what the cloth was and how you handled it to get exactly what you wanted," she remembers. Her collections use mostly wool, cotton and Irish linen, although she says, "I can't put my hand on my heart and say I don't use synthetics."
She has an innate understanding of what fabrics can do and has long been an admirer of the fine quality linens produced by John England in Belfast. "At one time, we couldn't use linen - it would be difficult to sell something that looked as creased and miserable as a soggy grey afternoon in the suburbs."
However, technical advances in the production of Irish linen pioneered by John England have revitalised this exceptional fabric.
"They were the first people we went to four linen; we like the way they worked on developing a blown finish which got rid of the knife creasing and made the fabrics so much softer," explains Ridings's partner Penny Lee. "And they came up with such interesting textures, a lightness of handle, embroideries and fabulous dye quality giving a wonderful depth and clarity of colour," enthuses the designer herself.
"If it's a fine linen we would put volume into it. We would never dream of putting a straight skirt into a linen that has a sharp crease in it," says Lee. "A lot of thought goes into the shape of the garment, depending on the linen that's being used. So if it is fine, then it's full, it's soft".
Coaxing the best out of her fabrics is part of Joyce Ridings's handwriting and is the key to her apparel, customers and retailers enthuse about the simple, unstructured looks she creates and their easy, elegant style. For this season she has designed a linen french style jacket, long swirling, linen dresses and chirpy playsuit sets of tie front top and flirty shorts in gingham. There is always an element of fun in her collections, although her disciplined eye for detail and devotion to quality has persuaded some of her fans to draw parallels between her and the late Jean Muir.
That's something noted by Roisin Walsh Dunseith of the House of de Courcy in Downpatrick. "The look is very understated and the collection evolves, rather than dramatically changing each season. Perhaps Muir would be more classic in her strict interpretation but there are definite similarities."
After taking a break from the business, in 1992 Ridings re emerged quietly and discreetly on the fashion scene and within the first couple of years quadrupled her label's turnover. Although based in Glossop far away from the melee and hyperbole of London street style, in her early days she was one of the English capital's bright young things working on the King's Road in the late 1960s. Compared with the struggles of a young designer today, the approach was very laid back and ad hoc. "I used to slip something on a hangar and go into shops saying `would you like some?' And they'd say yes and I'd go back and make some." The hustle and excitement of life, the partying, the music and the fashion on which she thrived then are all now a blur to her.
Moving to north Derbyshire after her marriage was, she recalls, quite a culture shock - "I didn't know what a mill was or what a terraced house looked like." Perhaps the environment has influenced her but the years reveal Joyce Ridings as a determined, gritty character with a tremendous passion for what she does. Although she has worked with other partners, they tended to sap her confidence whereas Lee, a former retailer, has the liveliness and spontaneity that were needed to relaunch Joyce Ridings's business. Her style has evolved over time but her identity remains consistently strong. The breezy comfort and elegance of her look has forever been her handwriting and her appeal.