My old school friend Sue Foulston, who has died aged 68 of cancer, was a fashion designer and a teacher of fashion at Central Saint Martins college of art. Sue was always thrilled at the prospect of refining raw talent, and was one of the instigators, in 1999, of CSM’s highly regarded annual White Show – in which first-year fashion students present looks made entirely from a piece of white fabric.
Sue relished the excitement of teaching; she lived life to the full, and from the day I met her Sue led me and all her friends in her wake, as she surged ahead.
Born in Oldham, to Enid (nee Whitelegg), who worked in a local tobacconist shop, and Ken Foulston, an aircraft research engineer and self-taught musician who played the saxophone and clarinet in dance bands, Sue went as a “scholarship girl” to Manchester high school for girls, where we met. There, Sue was a leader of fashion, who knew the best music, had the best taste, went all-night dancing in The Twisted Wheel, and whose approval was a treasured prize in comparison with academic achievement.
She headed off to Hornsey College of Art, in north London, in 1971 to study fine art. While there she made a Harrington jacket for her younger brother, Ken, who became the envy of every cool Manchester mod.
Sue’s great talent really came into its own when, in 1980, Jasper Conran lured her away from Swanky Modes, Camden, where Sue, after finishing college, had worked both sewing samples and on the shop floor. She stepped into the Regent’s Park milieu, running Conran’s sample room and working on the jersey collections as they partied hard in the flat that they also shared with members of the Clash.
After leaving Jasper Conran in 1996, Sue designed for Mother of Pearl and Viyella, while also running projects at Central Saint Martins as a visiting lecturer. In 1997 she became a permanent senior lecturer for first-year BA fashion students, and two years later was running the first-year programme with fellow tutor David Kappo. Together they had the idea of taking the White Project (initiated by the former course director Wendy Dagworthy) and making it into a fashion show. The inaugural White Show took place in December 1999 and was a huge success.
Sue continued working for CSM following her diagnosis in 2019. The same year, the White Show was put on outside the college for the first time, showing at the British Fashion Council’s fashion awards at the Royal Albert Hall.
Sue’s students found her empathetic, demanding and fun. We shall all miss her mischievous presence. Her contribution to the world of fashion is substantial but her sharp focus was frequently on the world around her and how it could, if it tried, present itself much better.
Her partner, Woolly Wolstenholme, a vocalist and keyboardist with the band Barclay James Harvest, died in 2010. She is survived by her brother, Ken.
