It’s always been a highlight during my trip to Playtime Paris Trade Show to visit Serena Di Scalzo at Loud Apparel and see what new edgy, minimalist collection she’s designed for kids. For her Spring Summer 2015 collection, I had the pleasuring of interviewing Serena about how she started Loud Apparel and what’s new this season.
Meet Serena Di Scalzo – Playtime Paris SS15
“The Loud Apparel Journey Started in 2010. It’s a translation of London Meets Italian Minimalism because I’m Italian but I’m based in London for so many years.
I started Loud Apparel because I have a boy and I’m living in East London that’s quite an up and trendy area right now with lots of designers. I wanted to translate the edginess of London that we have in Women’s and Menswear into a children’s wear brand with Loud Apparel.
Loud Apparel Boys Collection Modeled by Serena’s Son Zion
I think the name Loud Apparel says it all. The children are loud. The brand wants to be loud, even if it’s minimal. We have minimal shapes with striking graphics and monochrome colors. I always put a hint of one strong color each collection to bring it up a little bit. For this season I went into the monochrome black and gray, and the hint color is a mustard yellow.
We have bold graphics as well and for Spring Summer 2015 I went with Monsters. And I always add a message as well, and this season it’s “Believe in Your Dreams.” This is a positive message that children need to have, to help them move ahead and achieve – to aim and be positive in the years ahead.
Serena Di Scalzo – Loud Apparel Monster Shirt SS15
I’ve always been an extravagant person, even when I was little. I probably got it from my Mom and Grandma who are Italians that emigrated from Italy to America and came back after living in LA. They always had this flair of different things and I grew up with this style and edginess.
I went to school in completely something else than fashion. I went to linguistic school and studied two years of Science Technology which wasn’t for me. Then I came to London which was more of my type of place. I decided I wanted to go into fashion and design with my son as my model for Loud Apparel.
Loud Apparel Kids Leather Clothing SS15
Some of my favorite pieces from the collection are the leather items which I always introduce a few pieces each collection. I think leather for children is fantastic. For example, these are my shorts for girls, the top and sweater is leather.
Another favorite is the overall print which this season is an abstract mix of our past graphic elements that we had. I think it really came out quite striking. Another great graphic is the monster where this time we went into different types of monsters but they always have a funny element. A funny face which is really who we are – it’s very bold, minimal because it’s just an outline.
Loud Apparel Overall w/ Strong Graphics
We’re got out overall and on the back is the graphics “bla bla bla” in terms of children that are loud and talk too much. And because we have all of the monster faces so it also represents a monster talking. We always have a minimal face that’s out of a few lines or elements like this.”
Loud Apparel Minimalist Kids Fashion from London
Photo & Video Credit: Nancy Bundt