Emma Shipley and Susie Bubble at the WGSN Global Fashion Awards
Young Emma Shipley, the tremendously talented textile artist, won the Best Emerging Fashion Brand at the WGSN Global Fashion Awards on Wednesday evening and we’d like to say ‘well done’ with a blog post on her.
Actually, we came across Emma in 2011 at the Texprint show for that year, where Texprint’s honorary chairman, the uber-wise Barbara Kennington, pointed out her work. She had drawn, in exceptionally fine detail, a silver back gorilla as part of her Amazon collection that was so beautiful, it nigh on stopped my in my tracks. She had printed the gorilla onto a scarf but despite my nagging and then begging, she wouldn’t sell it to me because since she was a student and not yet producing them in any quantity, it was almost the only one she had.
Since then Emma has gone on to win a couple of other awards and collaborate with Anthropologie and shoe designer Nicholas Kirkwood, she is clearly a future star, that’ ‘s all we’re saying. Her brand website now houses a large range of scarves and prints, which are just gorgeous. I’m putting one on my Christmas List.
Her dad was at the awards with her and I was coincidentally sat at their table, he told me she’d drawn constantly since she was a small child and he was clearly very proud of her. Her outfit for the evening was one of her prints made into a dress and I was captivated with her black and white hair.
Just a thought, but wouldn’t this be a great look for grey hair too? Mostly grey with a dash of another colour sweeping down one side….
All Emma’s scarves are printed on Italian silk and are really small works of art. Prices are from £195 for silk chiffon and twill to £350 for the amazing double printed ones or you can buy a wall print for around £30. And of course scarves are ageless, in fact much like perfume, I reckon the older you are the better you wear them. Her website is here
This is the Silverback Gorilla scarf I saw first but I also love the beautiful Owl of Paradise below
The double printed Rousseau scarf is printed on lusciously heavy silk twill, you may never want to let it go. Aren’t the colours amazing?
Below is the wallpaper Emma did for Anthropologie,
