The Inspiration for Spring / Summer 2021
English gardens are known to be a bit wild and overgrown—yet completely breathtaking and inspiring. As we designed our spring collection, they seemed like the perfect metaphor for those first weeks, months and year(s) postpartum, where well-manicured becomes a notion of the past and messy but growing (and even thriving!) becomes the new standard. There are weeds here and there and some bits askew, but it’s a beautiful mess of stretching toward the light, finding respite in the cool shade and wandering and wondering at the tiniest, most exquisite details and breathing in the sweet scent of it all. Our family took a trip to the English countryside years ago. The gardens at the castles we toured were unforgettable, but the charming little gardens and window boxes and ivy-covered walls on the cottages and bakeries and abbeys in the village we stayed in made a deeper impression. The florals were quite literally the backdrop to our trip, so this garden-infused collection naturally brings back those treasured memories wearing Frances and holding my other little ones’ hands as we took long walks and slow picnics and explored a new place together.
Two of my children were born in spring and it really felt as though nature mirrored my experience with them. Their little bodies breathing new life as all the farms and gardens breathed their own. The ups and downs of those first few months postpartum as we try to calibrate to new rhythms and each other which felt like the erratic and unpredictable spring weather, one day sunshine and daisies and the next rain or even snow. I think seeing the earth go through a much larger transformation— and knowing that it was doing exactly what it should be—was comforting and inspiring.
Made with Liberty Fabrics
Since 1875, Liberty Fabrics have been renowned for their iconic designs, impeccable artistry and British sensibilities. Developed especially for Solly Baby, this Liberty Fabric was designed in London and crafted and printed by skilled technicians in Italy using silky-soft Lenzing modal and a timeless earth-toned palette. Liberty has created MANY different types of fabrics but never 100% Lenzing modal, so instead of just processing a normal order, they actually had to develop this fabric for us. It took several months to get the fabric the correct weight, width and hand. The upside to developing our own fabric is that we were able to apply our own Solly Baby touches to these classic florals that you have seen before. I love that these prints are perfectly, iconically Liberty but they also reflect Solly Baby’s earth-toned, endlessly versatile color palettes. Once we finally achieved the perfect fabric then Covid hit the world, which immediately halted their production in Italy and pushed our timeline out almost another year. (We first met with Liberty in August of 2019 and we picked up production yardage in Italy on February 15th of this year!) Despite this long runway we couldn't be any tighter in getting this out for our Spring launch, but the timing has never felt so right for beautiful florals springing hope and a fresh start, while rooted in timeless designs of the past.
{ Images via Liberty Archive }
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