When I sat down to sketch the second collection of Oak Meadow Essentials, I thought of you and all the women who wear my designs and share their photos with me. Thanks to social media, fashion design has never been as collaborative as it is now; it's like there's a constant conversation between the designer and the wearer. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to create clothes for you; clothes that you want and need, clothes that you treasure, the pieces you may even hold onto for your daughters, the next generation to wear Oak Meadow.
The design process is quite esoteric; it ebbs and flows with my mood but once I find my rhythm, once all the pieces fall into place, I love watching it come to life. When I asked you what you wanted from this new collection you suggested I bring back the shapes and styles that suit you most. There were also many requests for earthy florals to sit alongside the bright blooms that feature in so many of my past collections. And so, I've created delicate florals in sunflower, cornflour blue and hazelwood; buttery yellows, misty blues and prairie browns-a celebration of the colours of the earth and the sky.
I worked closely with my in-house artist to finalise all the small details and then the florals became fabric. I'm still in awe of the process of fabric design-the fact that I can be inspired by a bunch of flowers, a scrap of vintage wallpaper or the motif found in an old magazine and turn it into a design that becomes fabric, well, that's a bit magic, don't you think?!
