We’re excited to share that our second Tu Scholarship winner, Michaella Knight, has just had her childrenswear collection go live exclusively with Tu Clothing online! Michaella is the first ever Tu Scholarship childrenswear winner. The Nottingham Trent graduate’s Tu collection is a capsule of childrenswear tops & bottoms, dungarees, footwear and knitwear that have been translated from Michaella’s final year collection into a commercial offering for Tu.
Inspired by the bright tones and rustic landscape of the coastal fishing town of Poole, Michaella’s fun and vibrant childrenswear collection clashes vivid seaside inspired colours with exciting prints and textures. The summery collection is unisex and has been made using sustainably sourced materials. See more of the collection below and shop it here!
Can you describe your collection and the inspiration behind it?
It’s inspired by the fisherman from the busy quayside at Poole Harbour. The collection has a chaotic twist of colour, print and pattern and the main inspiration stems from the brightly coloured eroded buoys found dangling from the fishing boats. Bold clashing primary brights are key to this playful multi product range. It’s a mismatch of vibrant prints, colour blocking and statement knits which come together to create coordinated chaos. A fun multi gender collection designed perfectly for the British summer time.
How has the collection evolved since the GFW2019 show?
It’s changed quite a bit from my original collection as it was all completely knitwear! I had to think about different fabrications, styles that would be suitable for high summer and print ideas. Some of the knit structures have been followed to create commercial pieces – The little cardigan was from a cable jumper, the ripple stitch zip up hoody was taken from the multi armed crazy oversized jumper, the leggings were tweaked slightly to be commercial and I did quite a few cables within the collection so I really wanted a chunky knit cable jumper that would be suitable for summertime.
Are there any designers that have influenced or inspired your design aesthetic?
Stella McCartney, her brand has such a strong positive message about sustainability
A lot of her prints are quite graphic and fun which relates to the way I work
What do you think is the most important lesson you've learned from this process?
Definitely don’t be afraid to push boundaries! It can be tricky within childrenswear as there is a lot of health and safety regulations to take into account
Just believe in your ideas, it may not stay the same as you originally designed/thought of but in the end the best creation will come out of it!
What have you enjoyed most?
It has to be the work trip to India! I was able to do final approvals of some pieces of my collection and helped the girlswear team sketch out designs for upcoming phases! A completely different way of working from being in office. I had factory tours which were really eye opening! You sort of have an idea of what factories would be like but it to actually see it is person is very different! It was such an amazing experience to be able to go!
What have you found hardest?
I think just presenting my ideas to different teams, it felt quite daunting at the start presenting something you’ve worked so closed with to people who know nothing about you or the collection. It definitely helped build my confidence doing so I’m grateful I got the chance to present to so many people!
Tell us about the teams at Tu that you have worked with.
Within the scholarship you get exposed to so many teams you probably wouldn’t! I had a design mentor, who is the designer on girlswear. She really helped me to push new ideas and think about things I might not of thought of! I had help from the graphics team to put hand painted print designs into commercial repeats. I had a buyer and merchandiser for the collection and I worked closely with the technical team with fit approvals which was really good to be involved in as there is a lot of health and safety regulations within childrenswear. Packaging - to design my own swing ticket! Visual merchandising – (this was for when to the collection was going into store) To help build a pack to send to stores. Marketing, copy writers and online content – For look book shoot and website page!
What's it been like having an established LFW designer as a mentor?
Rob was so helpful throughout the whole process! For our first meeting when I visited him in his studio in London, he was very positive and really happy with the direction I had taken. It was great to get his creative ideas on ways to make my collection even more exciting
What do you feel is the standout, must-buy piece from your collection?
It is really hard just to pick out just one! I would say either the colour block mac with the two colour zip and printed lining or the little cardy as that knit structure was taken straight from my collection!
