quickie luella interview
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060328/FEAT05/603280316
Fashion's 'pop' comes from prints
Patterns on white big for spring
By Samantha Critchell
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — With spring's color palette focused on neutrals, what's a stylish gal to do if she wants to make a bold fashion statement?
She picks a print.
In fact, she'll show she's really on the ball if it's a white-ground print - hitting two trends with one top - or bottom, or dress.
British designer Luella Bartley, who also is Target's guest international designer this season, is known for bold prints and patterns. The Target collection features garments decorated with cherries, cowboy boots, graffiti and plaids, while Bartley's upcoming signature fall collection uses lots of schoolgirl plaids.
"I like things to be quite poppy, quite graphic - it's quite a London sensibility. I'm not looking for 'pretty' or 'nice,' " Bartley says. "Stripes are always a huge thing for me. I'm obsessed with stripes. I like a graphic flower print, not a delicate Liberty (of London) print, and I like uniform prints."
Bartley shies away from intricate artwork and cutesy things, she says, but fruit prints look crisp, too.
"A cherry is very iconic. I like to play those sorts of images. I take something sickeningly sweet and use it in a subversive way. With cherries the way to do it is to make it graphic. It's sweet, cute, but hopefully with a little bit of teen angst," she says.
BEHIND THE COLLECTION
As a woman in her 30s, Bartley says she'd wear the cherry print with a tailored pantsuit. "I like that bold pop but without being too in your face."
Bartley and her team design all the prints themselves, and they're typically the first step in building a new collection. The inspiration for one could come from something on the street to a piece of art.
"Usually when I'm thinking about the story behind the girl of the collection, I'm thinking about the things she loves and then the prints just sort of come," Bartley says during a phone interview.