Louise Wilson
Louise Janet Wilson was a British professor of fashion design. Louise Wilson was based at the Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design in London, where she was the course director of their MA in Fashion from 1992 until 2014. Her former students include Alexander McQueen, Jonathan Saunders, Louise Goldin, Christopher Kane, Marios Schwab, Peter Jensen, Richard Nicoll, Christopher Shannon, Yu Lun Eve Lin, Charles Jeffrey and Sophia Kokosalaki.
Life and career
Wilson was born in Cambridge, England, moving to the Scottish Borders later in her childhood. After initially studying textiles at Galashiels Technical College, she went on to take a degree in fashion at Preston Polytechnic, graduating in 1984 with first class honours. In 1986 she gained an MA in Fashion with distinction from Saint Martin's School of Art.She worked for various designers including Les Copains, Gianfranco Ferré and Daniel Hechter and as a designer for Guess jeans before becoming an associate lecturer at St Martins in the early 1990s. In 1992 she succeeded Bobby Hillson as the course director of the MA degree programme in Fashion Design. She moved to New York City in 1997 to become creative director for Donna Karan. After two years she returned to Central St Martins and was made a full professor in 1999, although she simultaneously continued to work for Donna Karan until 2002.