With London Fashion Week nearly upon us, we’re filled with anticipation for this season’s shows and collections. Imogen Eveson traces the influences of the countryside in Luella’s designs.
Luella Bartley’s work is showing signs of the South West
Compared to London (Bristol notwithstanding) the South West of England feels a bit Amish. With real ales and pony-traps, homemade pasties and funny accents, life here is so much simpler, so much quainter.
This is a bit of a sweeping statement, but it must have been something of a culture shock for someone as resolutely urban as Luella Bartley, the Brit designer once dubbed by US Vogue as a ‘poster child for London cool,’ when she upped sticks and moved to, well, the sticks.
Her relocation to Cornwall in 2006 (with photographer husband David Sims and their children in tow) has certainly had an impact on her design work of late.
For one thing, she has collaborated with surf-wear brand O’Neil on their S/S 08 collection and if that doesn’t suggest an out-of-city experience, then nothing does.
But country living is manifesting itself in her own line too, as last season’s collection for instance (her second in London after having shown in New York for six years) carried a distinctly Pagan theme, inspired by both the Wickerman and the Witchcraft museum in Bartley’s new hometown of Boscastle. She managed to retain a crucial urban edge, however, juxtaposing rural references with sharp tailoring, accessories and styling.
Interweaving the homespun with the hard-edged and the quaint with the quirky in the fun but ultimately wearable way that Luella does best, it seems the sea air really does do you good.
