What a year it's been Foxies...We’ve had our heads in the clouds with Under a Paper Moon, gone nautical with Ocean Pearl, indulged in a little ’70s glamour and wandered through the fields with A Good Harvest. But for Earth Pearl, we’re back on the ground and feeling the fresh and damp Yorkshire chill....brrrr.
Let's Fall in Love with Winter too...
Its no secret that Autumn is by far my favourite time of the year (for clothing not weather btw). Yorkshire can be grey and damp for weeks on end, flanked by the grey stone walls and bleak landscape. Think Wuthering Heights and that's no joke.
But this morning, a typically damp and dreary one, I saw a tremendous rainbow. Full, bright, strong and bulging with colour and it reminded me of the contrasts and how much this rainbow can be even more appreciated because of its bleak surroundings. What a treat and how grumpy had i been?!
Which brings me to Autumn and why we love it so. At this time of year, it IS the contrasts...the rich tones of the landscape (which id ignored momentarily today) are such inspiration. The leaves are turning - bringing us hues of rust, amber, gold and those sunrises...flame tones of red, auburn and ochre. These truly are my favourite colours and thus, I look forward to creating our AW seasonal collection every year (after an initial sulk).
There's always a challenge to bring something different - whilst also knowing what our customers ask us for and what we know works well. Our palette this year started with a deeper, richer brown - headlined by a mahogany brown herringbone wool blend I discovered recently. I simply love a herringbone weave and the subtle specs of colour in this add a special something that is really tricky to show in photographs.
From here, i ventured to our supplier's warehouses to seek out some special options and found some real treats. Certainly, we love our own prints but sometimes some gems come up that really inspire new styles.
We’ve given our signature spring print, Ocean Pearl, an autumn turn, swapping its cooler tones for rich brown, rust and mustard to sit beautifully with both the new mahogany herringbone and our regular heavy crepe separates and new knitwear. 'Tis the season for layering, after all!
With its roots in an original hand-painted design from our archive, this little pearly ditsy feels so at home in an autumn wardrobe, with all the 1930s charm we love.
Our Season's Signature...
An Ode to Lee Miller
Lee Miller was a heroine. She was a courageous, ground breaking artist and i recall when her work first came into my conciousness. It was a close up photograph of a woman from the mid 1930s - that looked profoundly modern in nature. If the label hadnt been there telling the viewer, one wouldnt have known. I attended an exhibition in Brighton about her and learnt more. Her history, her work and I was particularly drawn to her fashion images. Very stylised, beautiful and takes us into a dream world and that to me, is what fashion can do.
When it came to photographing our 1930s hero looks, we found ourselves returning to Lee Miller.
Since we like to provide contrasts - and our last shoot was very natural and ethereal in nature - we decided something more staged would be fun. Accepting that The House of Foxy is most known for our 1930s and '40s styles it seemed fitting that for this sumptous time of the year, Lee Miller's 1930s/40s fashion photography inspired our hero shots. We just like to play really...
Our Limited love...Art Deco Georgette
One of the most sought after looks at our Vintage Fashion Extravaganza was our first 1920s daywear look. Foxies have been begging us for Art Deco Georgette so we've made a little capsule of 20s/30s wear in this flowing georgette, with its darling deco & autumn colours!
For Town and Country!
We’ve always felt a day outdoors deserves a little glamour, just as much as dressing up for town. Lately, we’ve fallen in love all over again with practical country dressing, especially those lovely 1930s shapes. Country dressing became such a big part of this collection - it really deserved its own moment... have a read of Country Girls.
