Pippy’s All Grown Up - The Making of the COCO Collection
When I first started making my garter tops, there was something so playful about them. When I went out dancing wearing it, the metal clips bouncing around my hips gave me a little buzz. I immediately thought what ELSE can I hang off these metal rings. Then I took to instagram to find some indi keyrings makers and hence Fai came into my life!
When I saw Fai’s keychains (Fai’s from the US so keychains only feels right) - but they are so much more than that…. each key chain is a little world, a story of it’s own. I fell in LOVE. The perfect accompaniment to idle hands that need something to twist and bop and flick hehe.
I’'m a collector of trinkets. They live on doorframes and adorn every empty surface in my flat. They live on shells and in tiny boxes. Fai’s creations made from found objects, recycled toys and various locks and keys felt like the perfect accompaniment to my mission of using dead stock fabrics and making magic out of what already exists.
The inspiration for the new collection was part grunge - part Pippy Longstocking. I wanted it to be playful and silly, while also continuing the themes of punk, DIY culture, and community. My mood board is a lot of trinkets and toys, safety pins, stripes, Chloe (obvs), punk, fishnets, knits and general bits and bobs.
Another big influence is my silly parents who I don’t stop banging on about (in my Substack). They met in Brighton when they were teenagers. My dad was an Elm Grove boy and my mum a Ditchling Road girl. Mum was a child genius. And a rebel. And apparently a little devil child when she was a babe- laughing herself to sleep at night. She’s always done things her own way - maybe why I am like I am today. When she was at Cambridge studying medicine she decided to have a baby at 21. Dad was at Lancaster University. He’d come down and push my sister over the cobbled streets to make her stop her own devilish wails. They were punks, but of the folk variety. My dad strumming all manor of strings for the Southern folk rock bands : Levellers, The Sheep Are Nervous, many others that aren’t in my 9am brain. Rebels and anarchists having a baby at that time is quite punk.
My dad’s uniform - tiny Addidas shorts and band tees. My mums pink stripes and a lot of black. My daily uniform is a lot of black - as is my core collection so I thought with this new collection I’d take inspiration from these images of my parents (and my mums extensive sock collection today).
So please enjoy the COCO collection - my mums nickname [short for Claudine - but pronounced kuh-kuh]. Full of stripes and playfulness and childhood fantasy. I’m feeling nostalgic right now, maybe it’s the season? So I give you bodysuits for layering and shorts for lounging, paired with keychains by Fai for playing with!
LOVE YOU ALL
EL XXXXX
We then went on to do a shoot with Lydia Gray, Milena Watts , Ali Hendra, Starr, Anjali and Nancy - which I am going to do a whole other post dedicated to so TBC !!!
(There are too many beautiful pics to choose from!!)
