Creative force Holly Marler on the magic of the theatre

“The process behind theatre is magic,” beams Holly Marler.

From starting out in the costume department at National Youth Theatre to working for Alexander McQueen and becoming a creative force at Cath Kidston, Holly’s career has taken her through fashion, textiles, painting, photography and set design. More than two decades later, she still reflects on and credits much of the way she works back to her early years backstage at NYT.”

Learning a craft

Holly discovered National Youth Theatre aged 18 through her textiles teacher while studying for her A-Levels. At the time, she already knew she wanted a creative career and was planning to attend fashion college, but NYT offered her the chance to really learn a craft.

“The costume archive downstairs was amazing,” she remembers. “We would have a real creative input in the designs and measuring the cast.” She adds that this is how she met her daughter’s father.

“The costume department at NYT was where I really learnt craftsmanship”

She recalls sewing, painting techniques and fabric manipulation. She was also offered a place at St Martin’s College of Art which she explained is the perfect place to become or learn the skills of being a designer.

It wasn’t simply the practical skills that stayed with her. Holly remembers working backstage each night, maintaining costumes, washing and watching every department contribute to the final performance. “Working behind the stage was really magical for me,” she says. “It very much inspires my work now because it was that sort of magic of the process.”

For Holly, theatre taught her that the actors standing beneath the spotlight is only one part of the story. Stage managers, lighting technicians, costume makers and prop departments all contribute to creating the world audiences eventually see and love.

From backstage to the catwalk

After her degree, Holly moved into fashion, spending six years working as a designer and print designer at Alexander McQueen. Despite moving from theatre into fashion, the worlds never felt too far apart.

“The whole theme was theatre,” she explains when talking about McQueen’s catwalks. She recalls a Jack the Ripper show where models walked down sets of Victorian cobbled streets.

The historical knowledge she had gained through costume proved particularly useful. Marler remembers working on NYT’s production of Nicholas Nickleby, where she learnt how to make and repair corsets and use techniques to age costumes. McQueen similarly drew extensively on historical silhouettes, transforming references from the past into something entirely new.

“That sort of historical knowledge of costume design, alongside that magical storytelling and the tiniest little detail of a costume really showing a part of that character, really informed my time at McQueen.”

Building Worlds

Today, theatre continues to run through Holly’s work. As a designer and painter, she might spend days hand painting a print inspired by heritage textiles, an artist or a particular story before translating it onto clothing, bags or homeware. From there, she helps construct the world in which the collection lives.

“The way I build a photo shoot is theatre,” she says. “It’s not photography.”

Her creative process remains deliberately tactile and as far away from technology until the point it’s needed too. She uses books, printed images, fabric samples and physical mood boards rather than relying on a screen. .

At Cath Kidston, Holly has even found herself physically recreating the theatrical spaces that first inspired her. For a recent Christmas shoot, her team constructed wooden slats resembling the backstage of a theatre.

Everybody Makes It Possible

“I think it’s because National Youth Theatre happens at a time when you are going from a teenager to an adult,” she explains. “It’s the time where you really are growing. So all that you immerse yourself in stays with you.”

NYT also had an impact beyond her career. Some of the friends she made remain among her closest today, a pattern we are all too familiar with at NYT. Her daughter’s godparents include people she met during those years.

That sense of community is part of what she believes makes theatre so valuable for young creatives. “When the show’s on and you’re in the darkness backstage, everybody makes it possible,” she says.

Get Involved

Her advice to young people unsure exactly where they fit within the creative industries is simply to: get involved. “Live it as much as you can, even if it’s slightly not the right path,” she says.

“Whatever you’re living creatively is always going to enhance the next stop on your journey.” And once you get the opportunity? Be enthusiastic and make yourself indispensable. Holly remembers deciding to help with makeup during Nicholas Nickleby simply because she could paint, as well as ironing and washing seemingly endless shirts backstage.

“I absolutely knew I wanted a creative career , but I didn’t know if I wanted to do fashion, costume, set or makeup,” explains.

“That was the perfect place to see it all.” Whether Holly Marler is painting a textile, constructing a fashion set or devising a photoshoot, somewhere within it remains the same lesson she learnt backstage at NYT as a teenager, the real magic is in everything that happens before the curtain rises.