Springing into the season

It’s an eagerly awaited time for fashion designer Ann Louise Roswald as she launches her Spring Summer collection; the product of more than 12 months work from the design table to the rails of some of the country’s most affluent boutiques.

This year’s designs feature an element of nature, both in print and embroidery, coupled with splashes of vibrant colour. “I really went back to nature with the prints,” said Ann Louise. “There’s lots of leafy patterns and roses. It’s quite a traditional collection for me really. There wasn’t one key thing that triggered it. I was just out with my camera trying to capture inspiration for the prints and I found I ended up with lot of photographs of nature and plants.

“Prints are my thing really. I have always designed them and printed them myself, however this season we have a lot of embroidery too. Also everything is always so dark over winter so we really went for it with the colour for this year’s summer collection. Everything just has a really nice fresh feel to it.”

This is Ann Louise’s 13th year in the fashion industry. She shot on to the fashion scene when she graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London in 1997. Her graduation show turned heads in the industry, and the fresh faced young designer was dubbed “the one to watch” by Vogue. The former Pindar School and Yorkshire Coast College student soon found herself in the spotlight and after being asked to reproduce her graduation collection for Liberty’s 1998 spring summer collection she decided to launch her own label. Looking back, the Swedish-born designer says it was a naive decision, though one which was partly based on her Scarborough upbringing. “My dad had Bjorn Clogs in Scarborough so I was used to being in the family business environment. My husband Nick also had his own business. My degree show did really well for me. My dad designed all the clogs for it and I was just very different to what was happening in London at that time. Fashion was very grey, and I was about colour and prints which was received really well. “I just thought its not often Liberty ask you to do a collection so I was obviously doing something right. Why not do it right for myself? “Looking back I don’t know if I would do it again. But we did it. It was tough at first because we didn’t appreciate how difficult it was going to be.

“After showing at London Fashion Week for Liberty, where I won a New Generation Award, we showed our own label in 1999. It went crazy after that. We were stocked in Barneys and stores all around the world. We just thought, ‘Oh my god how are we going to manage to produce all this?’ The business built up very quickly. At the moment though it has levelled off to a nice little plateau while I focus on my kids.”

Now after travelling to fashion shows in Paris and New York, and sourcing suppliers from across the globe, Ann Louise is returning to her East Coast roots. “We were back visiting family and we found this old house in Hawsker and fell in love with it.” says Ann Louise, excited about the restoration project. The aim is to also create a studio “so we can move the business up here. I am keeping the sales team down south and moving everything else up with me. Well that is the plan anyway. “We really like living in London but we just thought this was a great place and we wanted to put our stamp on it.”

The launch of this year’s Spring Summer range has come at a hectic time for the mother of two. It hasn’t taken away from the excitement though of unveiling what is always one her most popular collections.

“With the summer comes the races and weddings, which are huge for us and probably the core of our business.” No doubt Ann Louise’s designs this year will feature at race courses but there is only one event that people are dressing for this year. The Royal Wedding.

“We would love to see one of our designs at the Royal Wedding,” says Ann Louise. “Zara Phillips and Princess Eugenie have both been photographed in our stuff before, so who knows?”

Ann Louise Roswald is stocked at The Clothes Room, Wetherby Road, Harrogate.