I genuinely believe that this collection is one of our very best thus far. The fresh new colours, an iconic print and some stand out new styles!
For me, designing is 'storytelling' - it helps me to bring a collection together and give meaning and a hook for telling our customers about it. With any new style I design, I'm thinking about why the person is wearing it, what are they thinking, feeling, doing? Where are they going?
For this collection - in contrast to our last more 'country' feel - the feeling is all about travel. Wearing beautiful clothing in a modern bustling city and navigating this modern world. Nothing makes us more hopeful than the wearer bringing vintage glamour to the big smoke!
Fresh New Colours
The Metropolis Collection was centred around city life and particularly London where we photographed it. The colour palette reflected the cool tones of the buildings with the early spring cold temperatures but clear blue skies that promise warmer days.
Our print 'Jubilee' blended tones of blue, ivory and red and blended perfectly with the new 'Steel' colourway. We also brought in a short run 'smoke check' in a few styles to compliment the collection and brought in the staple black tones.
A New Style
Because we have a team that are so responsive and skilled, we can bring out a new style very very quickly. This means that as we are building a collection, there is space for last minute style and ideas. So, there were definately a few in this one!
We are absolutely delighted with the new 1930s Connie Dress and Jacket. Inspired by early 1930s styles, this captures the silhouette perfectly with its use of the smoke check contrast, faux belt and the folds on the front of the jacket. I say again that in my opinion, the 1930s has never been bettered in terms of cut - and I just keep loving trying to recreate these styles. Modern fabric can be challenging to replace the originals - but sometimes the compromises are worth it and produce something really lovely and totally wearable!
A Great British Location
We headed to Central London for the shoot and met our two models there. The location was simply perfect and we were so lucky with the weather, something that is always a concern for UK outdoor shoots! Moving forward, we want to reflect wearing vintage style in a modern setting somehow - rather than trying to recreate environments from decades ago. Therefore, we weren't wedded to avoiding modern views and included the modern red bus, traffic lights, street lights, the modern view of the Thames etc. However, the images still have a vintage flavour because - the clothes do it!
Spring Occasionwear
St Pauls was the backdrop for our Spring Occasion additions. All beloved Foxy occasion styles, in new colours. Again tones of lilac and grey, in this magnificent stone gave the perfect canvas for these styles.
Special occasions arise throughout the year, so we felt it essential to introduce evening-wear options that beautifully capture this season change. The popular 1940s inspired Celeste evening gown which has a lighter tone metallic fabric called 'starlight', got a cute new cape which is a lovely little upper arm coverup. This knockout dress stole the show and attracted some public attention whilst shooting...
We also wanted to refresh our late 1930s 'Ivy' Dress in velvet by using new colour 'Dusky Rose'. We get our velvet from a local supplier, well established in the industry, and we found this colour in a recent visit. The colour is so spring - yet perfect for the cooler evening (certainly the case here in Blighty!)
A Last note...
We are absolutely delighted with this collection and we hope that our customers enjoy wearing these special garments as much as we did creating them. A special thanks to the whole team for helping bring this collection to life!