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What is the inspiration behind the Spring/Summer 2013 collection? Where did your inspiration come from?
The theme of the CiCi Bean Spring/Summer 2013 collection is Endless Summer! The inspiration came from our memories of childhood summers. You remember the kind…where each day is filled with sun and warmth and the summer seems to last forever. There was nothing more fun than getting on your bike and riding to your best friend’s house, spending the day laying in the grass watching the clouds, laughing and talking for hours! Endless summer is all about enjoying the beautiful weather and the outdoors, spending time with friends and family, and opening your heart to store the memories made!
How did you pick the colours for this collection and what inspired your choices?
When it comes to picking colours it is very much a team effort! I work alongside the very talented Peekaboo Beans Designer Calli and together we start playing with colours. When picking colours we always keep the seasons theme and inspiration in mind. We want the colours to tell the story of the collection and be bold and fresh.
What does your design process look like? How do you get from ideas to final designs?
Here is my design process in a nut shell: Once the theme has been developed and we begin to work on colour choices this is when my sketch book becomes my best friend! I start by drawing all of my ideas on paper, this helps get my vision out in the open so I can see it more clearly! I draw and draw and draw until finally I start seeing pieces that I like and want to incorporate into the collection. Then I created more detailed drawings and take them to the design team for feedback. From there I create ‘technical drawings’ on my computer. These drawings help to show the details of the garment and we use these drawings to put together line sheets when we present our final collection. I love designing clothes for CiCi Bean and the most excited part is when my drawings become real samples and I can see the clothes on real girls!
What was your biggest struggle when designing the Endless Summer collection?
I think always the biggest struggle when designing is making sure that I am designing for my target market and not straying from our core concepts. For me this is comfort, fashion, and personal style. I am constantly reminding myself that every piece I design has to be comfortable to wear, trendy, and fun for girls to wear and make their own. If I’m ever having trouble making the collection come together the first thing I do is review our design concept and make sure that all the pieces were truly designed with that in mind.
What was your favourite part of designing the Endless Summer collection?The Endless Summer collection was super fun to design and I truly enjoyed every minute of it! Since this was the first Spring/Summer collection for CiCi Bean it was a new and exciting experience for me. I LOVE Summer and so it just seemed very natural to design a collection for Spring/Summer. I had a lot of ideas in my head and it was great to get them all down on paper and see the collection develop.
What do you love most about the this collection?
My favourite thing about this collection is the bold, bright colours. I am obsessed with bright colours so to see some punches of peach and orchid was very exciting for me, I think the colours really make the garments stand out! I hope all the CiCi Bean girls out their love the colour combinations in this collection!
Is there anything that sets this collection apart from collections in the past?
I think there are some fun new details in this collection that make it fresh and new…but there are also some great details that we just had to carry over from last season. You’ll see the return of our hidden toggles for easy adjusting and wear it your way option! The popular CiCI Bean scarf will be re-appearing this season as well, but SURPRISE we have a new colour option this time! Some great new details include our new CiCi Bean mantra twill tape, which can be found in the Full of Freedom Hoodie. We also added a two piece tee that is super versatile and fun which I think will have all our CiCi Bean girls excited!
What are the most important things you keep in mind when designing for PB/CiCi Bean?
The most important thing I keep in mind when designing for CiCi Bean is comfort! I’m so passionate about designing clothing that is comfortable for the wearer. I truly believe that when we feel comfortable in our clothing it makes us feel better about our bodies. When waistbands dig into our tummies or things are too short, revealing and tight it makes us feel very uncomfortable…and usually we blame our bodies and not the clothes. In a recent fitting we did for our Fall 2013 photo shoot, one of our CiCi girls told me that the outfit she was wearing was so comfortable it felt like she wasn’t even wearing anything! Seeing her smiling face and hearing her positive feedback was the best thing in the world for me!
What is your favourite piece from the Endless Summer collection?
This is so hard because I truly love all the pieces in this collection! If I absolutely must pick my favourite piece it would have to be the Full of Freedom Hoodie…I love the adjustable toggles inside, allowing this piece to be ‘worn YOUR way!
What are you working on now?
Believe it or not right now I am finalizing all of the designs for Spring/Summer 2014. Soon enough we will be starting to think about inspiration for the Fall/Winter 2014 collection!! There are so many exciting things to come for CiCi Bean and I wish I could share everything with you now…but first lets enjoy the Spring/Summer 2013 collection ‘Endless Summer’!
Visit CiCi Bean blog HERE and let your Heart be your Guide!
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