One of my favorite discoveries this Summer at Playtime New York is Velveteen designed by Laura Egroff. Back in August, I had the opportunity to interview Laura on Velveteen’s Spring Summer 2014 Collection. During our interview, Laura explained how she started Velveteen and a bit about the brand ethos.
California designed, Swiss-owned and Hong Kong-based, Velveteen is passionate about creating sophisticated and classically styled children’s fashion that is as whimsical and comfortable as it is beautiful.
“Velveteen is actually a project that we’ve been working on for…it’s basically a lifetime of work. I went to school for fashion right out of high school and then went back and finished a business degree. My parents insisted on getting a proper business education. That took me into finance for about 10-15 years. It’s been over that time that I’ve been developing the concept of Velveteen,” explained Laura.
At the last edition of Playtime Paris in January I had the pleasure of meeting up with Laura again and getting a sneak preview of the gorgeous Fall Winter 2014 collection which is both ethnic, playful and sophisticated at the same time. If they came in mom sizes I definitely would be wearing Velveteen!
Interview with Velveteen’s Designer Laura Egroff
“This collection is a little bit different than some of the past ones in that it’s all about the fabrics. We really focused on the prints and the colors. With everything, it’s all hand block printed in India. We did a lot of color on color block prints so you get almost like a textural feel, but also very sophisticated, which I really love.
We use primarily six colors: teal, charcoal, plum, camel, and sand. I love that color grouping because everything is interchangeable, everything goes together.
So you can either do color blocking which is a really great combination of any other these colors. Or you can go monochromatic. This is one of my favorite looks. These are our silk velvet harem pants, in this beautiful steel blue charcoal color.
To be honest, this is one of my favorite collections so far because I feel that it’s child and mom-friendly. It’s so easy to mix and match and come up with a great wardrobe.
We’ve introduced knits to the collection. So we have a beautiful cashmere wool blend knit that we’ve used. This is one of my favorite dresses, it’s a knit and woven dress that looks a bit like a jumper and skirt combination. We have it in several different colors. It’s great for school, and for play, but it’s also sophisticated.
We use two main block prints. It’s a floral jail, and what I love about this is that we’ve done a metallic fill on the flower. With a self-color vine. And we also have the beautiful teal and gold which really pops. I think it’s something special. And on the other end which is equally beautiful, we went color on color, with the charcoal and navy in a silver metallic floral.
I fell like this dress is going to be my classic. It’s great for school. You can put jumpers on it and leggings. It’s fun with the two little pockets.
We have these unique details with the silver bells, and with some of the items, we have tassels. We’ve gone with a little bit more of an ethnic feel, but the print and colors and really sophisticated and modern. But it’s fun for the little girls to have a bell and the gold piping. It’s fun, wearable but something different.
We also have a holiday collection with lots of sparkle and lurex. We’ve got some beautiful cashmere lurex with a dress which is really soft and beautiful. One of my favorites is this halter dress with a gold foil tulle. It’s really a beautiful silhouette on, which is perfect under the gold foil tweed coat. We’ve done some of this fun very Indian inspired antiqued gold disk trims with our signature block print on the inside. No detail left untouched.
This is a beautiful Italian wool Lurex blend it’s really sophisticated look again but with a little sparkle. I call this the Pippa coat. It’s a little bit English inspired by the pleats. Two in the front and two pleats in the back. And the little matching dress.
We’ve also done a really playful line this time with our accessories. Here are a few tulle tutus. They’re actually apron tutus so girls can tie them over whatever they are wearing – a skirt, a dress or leggings with the fun little tassels and silver bell details. It’s really beautiful.”
Thanks so much to Laura Egroff for the interview at Playtime Paris!
