New in store this week is the first drop of winter from Amy Kaehne, to celebrate Amy has designed a window installation for our Paddington store. We asked some questions about the girl behind the label...
Tell us a bit about your winter collection, what is the inspiration behind it?
The current collection (Winter 10 – Titled “WHITE LIGHT WHITE HEAT”) is heavily inspired by The Velvet Underground. I had heard the music for years and loved it but recently I started to listen to it and really feel it, and I’ve tried to embody those feelings into my winter collection through texture, colour and shape.
Nico and The Velvet Underground
Where does the design process start for you? With a theme, colour, aesthetic?
My design process always starts with a theme. From there it opens a new chapter for the season and creates a loose guide to colour, texture and embodies a story. This creates an overall feel for the collection.
Fabric also plays a big part in my design process.
Popular culture also plays a big part in the formation of your collections, what are some of your favourite books, movies and artists?
Ohhhh so many...
We collect rare limited edition books by the beat writers from the 1950s so I would have to include these in my top books-
Jack Kerouac - On the Road, The Dharma Bums, Big Sur
William Burroughs - Naked Lunch, Junky
Allen Ginsberg - Howl
And Charles Bukowski - Ham on Rye
Movies - Bonnie and Clyde, The Science of Sleep, Labyrinth, 500 Days of Summer, too many to name...
Artists - Mark Borthwick is a favourite, there are lots more though as I am inspired daily by lots of amazing and talented people.
Amy's book collection
When did you decide you wanted to be a designer? Were you a very creative child?
I was a creative child... I think being around my Mum and Grandmother who were amazing and could sew anything you wanted !!
I remember turning up to Kindy in full on co-ordinated outfits that my mother had made for me, right down to matching hair attire.
Being surrounded by this I think it was inevitable that I ended up in a creative field.
Although right up until I was 10 I wanted to be a vet!
Amy as a child
What do you enjoy most about being a designer?
Translating my inspiration from things around me into a collection and seeing the finished product.
If you could dress anybody, who would it be?
Cliché as it sounds as i know everyone wants to dress her at the moment... but it would have to be Zooey Deschanel. I think she has amazing style and is just so cute!
