William Baker (fashion designer)

For other people called William Baker, see William Baker (disambiguation).

William Baker (born 1973 in Manchester, England) is a fashion designer, stylist and author and theatre director, best known for his work with musician Kylie Minogue.

Baker attended the Manchester Grammar School, where he was taught by the current head of Religious Studies Dennis Brown, and was the inspiration for Manchester indie band The Man From Delmonte's song "Pink". Baker was studying Theology at King's College London and working as a sales assistant for Vivienne Westwood in London when he met the singer Kylie Minogue and her photographer Katerina Jebb.

Work with Minogue

Baker met Kylie when she came into the shop he was working in, Vivienne Westwood's flagship boutique on Conduit Street. He was said to have bombarded her with ideas and soon after meeting Minogue he became her stylist and creative director. William Baker is the one responsible for those famous Gold hotpants and the notorious white catsuit from the video for 'Can't Get You Out of My Head'.

He worked with the designer Alan Macdonald on Minogue's 2001 Fever tour, and in 2003 launched the Love Kylie lingerie range with Minogue. Baker also co-authored the book Kylie: La La La with her as well as worked as producer and director on Minogue's 2007 documentary White Diamond. His most recent collaboration with Minogue has been as creative director on Minogue's KylieX2008 tour.

Other work

In 2007 he made his debut as a theatre director with a West End revival of Rent dubbed Rent Remixed which received lukewarm reviews. When asked beforehand how he was going to handle the change in direction he claimed he said; "I'm approaching it in the same way I would approach a Kylie show or tour,".

He has also worked with the musical acts Garbage, Tricky, Björk, Tori Amos, Reef and Jamiroquai on album and single covers, and music videos.

He collaborated with Jay Kay of Jamiroquai on the costume and set design for both the A Funk Odyssey album cover and tour.

Baker recently has been working as stylist for Britney Spears on her 2009 The Circus Starring Britney Spears tour.

He has also been credited as director of British pop singer Leona Lewis' critically acclaimed debut tour The Labyrinth, which was filmed in the London O2 Arena for a DVD/CD release.