Story behind the print: Lola
Hi!
It’s been almost a year since we released new prints and a new collection.
To be completely honest, last year at this time, I was sure, the collection is done. I didn’t have the energy to create new pieces as the first collection wasn’t as well received as I hoped it would be. But you blown me away with support for our second collection and I’m so glad we are here. Every time I get a message from you about how happy you are with the purchase it makes me SO happy and it’s all worth it in the end. I created four different prints for SS23 and today I’ll introduce to you the first print I’ve created. What I learned in the past few years is that you love reading stories about the prints I’ve created and finding about what inspired them.
This is why I’ve decided to share behind the scenes about each print from our collection.
Prints are usually either created in-house by the textile designer, outsourced through freelance designers or bought from print studios.
Fashion brand owners usually don't create their own prints, and this is what makes this brand special as I create both prints for my fashion label and design clothes.
First print of the collection is called Lola,
after The Kinks song “Lola”. Buckingham Nicks also
has an amazing song called “Lola”.
Lola is another print that I’ve reimagined. This print was created after the illustration I created for my solo exhibition that I had during the summer in Ljubljana. It’s very similar, but in a completely different colour palette (see picture below). As with print “Penny Lane”, I also wanted “Lola” print to resemble the spirit of the sixties and seventies. The original illustration was in yellowish colour palette, but the print that ended up in collection is green-pink. I loved the yellow version that I’ve created for my solo exhibition, but it didn’t translate well to the clothes.
As you can see below I went through many color changes for this print and had a extremely hard time deciding with which colour option I should move forward. I started with yellow colour palette as I thought it was fitting for the summer, but later realised it looked too much like a “camouflage” print when on clothes. I added green and blue colors to the yellow version but it wasn’t working out and then tried something completely different with very bold and bright oranges, pinks and greens. I knew I wanted to do something with the green colour and stumbled upon Grace Kelly’s photo on Pinterest again after a long time, and realised, that adding pink to the green will do the job. (scroll down).
The main inspiration for colour palette of the “Lola” print was this photo of Grace Kelly, taken at a 1972 swimming competition event in Monte Carlo. I was always obsessed with this photo and her fabulous outfit. I wanted to create a perfect summer print and I think these colours are a perfect match.
Another inspiration was the nature. I wanted to create an abstract scene of a garden. The song I was playing a lot while creating this print was “I Feel Free” by Cream and this song always gave me psychedelic vibes, the same vibes the “Lola” print gives me. I can definitely imagine a young woman in the 60s wearing the dress with “Lola” print and dancing to this song.
Above you can see the outline for the illustration. The outline is almost the same as for the solo exhibition, except the illustration for the solo exhibition couldn’t be made into a print, as it didn’t “connect” on the sides. I needed to create a repeating print to use on the fabrics.
