Memories of Summer

The rain is currently lashing against my studio window one minute and the sun is beaming through the next… I’m hoping this is a sign that winter is starting to lose the battle to spring. It seems a long way off into the distance until we will be back in the heady days of summer.

This little girls high summer story I designed for Uttam Kids was inspired by memories of growing up in the 70s, playing in my grandparents garden, summer holidays where we explored country lanes with little cottages covered in roses.

As I worked on the prints, a slight Clarice Cliff influence started to emerge, I went with it on the garden print as it felt right. But then where did the 70s get it’s inspiration from after all?

 

Peacocks And Parties

Also just arrived is my Peacock Story. Last summer after a lot of cajoling I managed to get a wonderful electric blue colour into my high summer Uttam Kids range. It looked fantastic and sold really well, so getting this blue story in this year was a breeze. Uttam Boutique always do well with an oriental inspired story every season, so it made sense to do one for girlswear. The brief for this story was for items that could be worn everyday, but also be dressed up for parties and weddings. For a change this range was not predominately cotton poplin, but a soft drapey viscous. My favourite piece in the story is probably the party dress, the photo doesn’t really do it justice, the mesh is electric blue, with a silver lurex shot lining, silver glitter belt and silver bead and sequin work.

And Keeping With The Palm Springs Theme…

It used to be that girlswear themes were about a year behind womenswear. That has changed over recent years and trends tend to run across all areas now. (obviously there are some trends that are not appropriate for girls) As well as coming up with Palm Springs inspired prints for Uttam Boutique, I also used the trend in my Uttam Kids range. Adding in the flamingo garden ornament to the cactuses, helped make them a bit more girly and added a lovely highlight to the sun faded brights palette. The boss hated pastels, so the only way I could get them into the range was by mixing them with brighter colours.