The Nesting Magpie

Friday 17 May 2013

Lily Ashwell fashion collection

Well, hello there! It's been a while... Although this blog has kind of taken a backseat this past year while I've been studying Interior Architecture and Design in Dublin, my fascination with all things creative, design-y and lovely has only grown stronger. And as I see some more things to inspire me, I make a mental note to one day blog about them. One day, when I can afford a working laptop and I'm not spending 12 hours in a studio working on an upcoming college assignment...

Daughter of an ol' favourite Rachel, Lily Ashwell definitely seems to have inherited her mother's flair for making shabby chic. It's very vintage, very pastel, and as nothing is overly trend-driven, it's the kind of collection that would suit any age, in any age. The Lily Ashwell fashion line launched in 2012, and prides itself on printing on rare vintage materials, and keeping pieces American-made. This, in turn, makes the collections pricey, yes, but doesn't it also make them more like.. art?
 
Rather than taking advantage of her big-name parents (Lily's father is painter is British painter David Ashwell), Lily seems to have approached her career the old-fashioned way; spending four years at London's Central Saint Martins, a prestigious arts school, where Lily explains they "they did teach us to sew and all of the other technical aspects of clothing design, but they seemed more fixed on the storytelling aspect of creating a collection". And her collection is getting some serious recognition, with the likes of Elle and Teen Vogue taking note. 
 
I was so interested to learn about the design process. Isn't that always interesting? It's just one of those personal quirks that make you understand something. "I think in a very cinematic way, so I usually start with a landscape of the setting where I see the collection, and the holiday collection was in Wales. I was feeling coastal towns meeting pastures and farmland, so I start with an image like that. Then I make journals, where I create an illustrated story of who this girl is. I'll go as far as designing her house and creating an all-encompassing story around her.", the designer explains.

This video to accompany her Holiday 2012 collection kinda captures the mood perfectly. It kinda captures a really lovely mood perfectly. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NHF7avkNvY

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