At Playtime Paris I had the pleasure of meeting Camilla Ridley, the creative director behind milliemanu, a gorgeous girl’s and women’s collection from the UK. I passed by the milliemanu booth and was immediately drawn to learn more about the designer and colorful collection.
Watch my interview with Camilla Ridley to learn how she decided to launch the milliemanu children and women’s collection.
Before milliemanu, Camilla was in the women’s fashion world for 20 years including her label – Camilla Ridley which was sold all over the world. She had a shop on London’s Fulham Road for several years and stocked at high-end department stores in the US, Japan, and Europe.
Read Interview with Milliemanu Designer Camilla Ridley
“Hello, my name is Camilla Ridley. I’m the creative director behind milliemanu. And I started the business three and a half years ago after having my daughter Emanuel who’s the “manu” and I’m the “millie”.
I’ve been in the women’s fashion business for 20 years, and I had a label called Camilla Ridley that I used to sell all over the world.
When I had my daughter I was suddenly interested in the childrenswear market. I found that I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for.
I love the texture, color, prints, something different, something interesting. And I also wanted to create a brand uniquely British, and that was British made. So the ethos behind the brand is very much that it’s beautifully made British clothing.
The Summer collection is very bright, breezy, full of beautiful, ditsy floral prints. But we’ve kind of funked it up with neon trims and lace detailing. We’ve got some great characterful prints like the Isle of Wight prints which is kind of based on the Isle of Wight with the needles and the boats. We’ve done some beautiful, traditional type dresses with the Isle of Wight prints.
We’ve got some matching Panama Hats that have the Liberty Print bands around them which are extremely popular in the Summer. And we’ve got little Rah Rah skirts that are very on-trend, again with little neon details and coordinating tops. But it’s mainly quite a dressy collection for kind of all of your Summer occasions. Weddings, parties, taking children to Grandma’s for lunch. That sort of thing…Dressing children up.
A year ago we launched our first capsule collection for Womenswear. We’re doing a lot of Liberty Prints shirts and silk crepe de chine blouses for the Summer.
Thanks so much to Camilla Ridley for the interview on milliemanu at Playtime Paris. Coming soon to Dashin Fashion TV – milliemanu Fall Winter 2014 video interview.
