Meeting a Designer and His Muse: William Wilde and Siouxsie

This article originally appeared on VICE UK.

You often hear about the relationship between an artist and his or her muse. But what does that relationship actually mean? How does a muse influence the artist specifically? Do they just exist and allow the artist to be inspired by their very presence, or is there a designated daily slot where they belly dance to Ethiopian rare groove and jingle chains around their fingers while the artist takes notes?

We thought we'd hang out with a few artist-muse duos to get some insight. The first pair we visited was fashion designer William Wilde, who specializes in latex clothing and accessories, and his muse Siouxsie.

Make-up: Lucy Wearing using Mac Cosmetics
Hair: Ryo
Stylist's assistant: Thomas Ramshaw

VICE: So how did you two meet?
William Wilde: At university. I failed my first year because I was naughty and dropped out in a year. I kind of got friendly with Siouxsie and another girl, Jo, and they were both goody-two-shoes. In their year they were good and well-behaved, and I was a former naughty person. After a year we moved in together and lived with each other for 11 years.

Were you both studying fashion?
Yeah, we were on the same course. I think, if I remember rightly, I had this leopard print ring that was really big, and I was ironing in the fashion room and Siouxsie asked me where I got my ring from, and that was it.

Do you design all your collections with Siouxsie in mind?
Not so much, but I've done stuff specifically for Siouxsie. I did her wedding dress.

Was the wedding dress latex?
No, no. I did another friend's wedding dress, and it's nice to do something that isn't latex sometimes.

How did you get into latex?
I pretty much got into latex straight after university. I saw a job advertised for a fetish-wear designer, and I thought it sounded more interesting and more of a challenge than what I was doing at the time. It wasn't like I'd found my passion; it was more like I'd found something I could do something with that would actually be interesting.

Related: Fashion Week Internationale - Ukrainian Fashion Week:

Yeah, latex often seems to be black and sexy and S&M-themed, so it's nice to see something more fun and playful.
Yeah. I've got nothing against the fetish side of things, but I was never into latex in that way, so I was always coming at it in different ways. I remember when I was first doing samples for the first company I worked for, me and the people I worked with realized we'd never seen someone apply the fashion stuff to latex—it's always been that the people working with latex come at it through the sex side of it, like the fetish side first, then maybe try to make it fashion, whereas I came from cutting wedding dresses and evening gowns.

Siouxsie, do you feel any sense of responsibly being a muse?
Siouxsie: Well, I'm sort of not really aware of it—not conscious of it. I work for the brand and I care for it as much as William does. If something good happens, I share the same kind of joy. I guess, for William, it's another person who is totally onboard. Every little victory is brilliant for both of us.
William: It's nice to have someone who cares. Sometimes, when Siouxsie is away on holiday, and it's just me, then there isn't much in it—sometimes you need someone backing you up. When doing my first collections I didn't really realize Siouxsie was doing that—it was just part of our life as we lived together, so we would always be like, "I love that." I didn't really realize that was happening until I didn't have it.

What do your duties as a muse include?
Siouxsie: Well, I guess it's really broad—like, literally everything. We see each other almost every day. I'm pregnant now and I have a daughter already, but we sort of hang out and we talk about everything. I also think it's important to have someone with you when you're doing a shoot, someone to back you up.

Thanks, both.