MC Meets: Leanne Brooke, Creative Director, Something Wicked

Leanne Brooke knows a thing or two about lingerie. The creative director of the luxury and ever-so-slightly naughty lingerie brand Something Wicked made a name for herself when she set up the daring label Obey My Demand after graduating university. She went on to win New Designer of the Year at the Lingerie Awards and hasn't looked back since.

Here, she talks to Marie Claire about starting out, Gaga and PVC.

Talk us through your typical working day - is designing luxury lingerie as glamorous as it sounds? I start work around 10am with a cup of tea (an essential!) and go through the plan for the day. Because we manufacture everything in-house in the UK (which is quite unusual for a lingerie brand), I go through the production plan with our machinists. After that I'll divide my time between creating new designs, pattern-cutting or dealing with our UK and international stockists.

We're constantly obsessing about striking a work/life balance, how often do you manage to get out of the office on time? I’m not fantastic with time-keeping. I’m getting better, but I always set myself ridiculous targets before I leave the office so I do tend to be a bit late. Luckily I don’t have a family to juggle as well!

How would your colleagues describe you? Chaotic, a perfectionist and strong-willed. It’s all part of being creative!

Do you socialize with them or keep work/life separate? I definitely class my colleagues as friends.

What's your office soundtrack? Bastille is on the office iPod constantly. I’m love it.

The design industry is notoriously hard to break into, how did you do it? I went to university and got a first class degree in Contour and Fashion Design. Following some fantastic press at university, I set up my own label, Obey My Demand. My designs were worn by the likes of Lady Gaga, Holly Willoughby and Alesha Dixon - that was such a compliment. Then I decided to join Something Wicked as creative director...

What do you love most about your job? I love everything about designing, right from initial sampling to seeing my ideas come to life. We've recently been designing a new range with PVC and it's been a huge, brilliant challenge to make it look beautiful and chic.

What's the best advice you've ever been given? To be happy in whatever you do and never settle for second best.

Check out somethingwicked.co.uk and follow Leanne on Twitter @wearewicked.