In between Polly’s busy schedule, I caught up with her to ask her about her
label, her plans for the future and the inspiration behind UnkleBaxta. This is what she had to say.
Why did you want to go into fashion?
Well, I’ve always been inspired by and interested in clothes; I’ve always had a big interest in fashion since I was really young and by
designers and the whole world of it, it’s a completely different world to reality, fashion. It’s always
interested me and I’ve always loved it.
Has anything in particular interested you?
I love high street really, I’m not a big designer fan. I do love designers and I do appreciate designers and I’m interested by people like Vivienne Westwood, who have changed things but mainly high street fashion, wearable clothes, everyday stuff.
Where did the idea for
UnkleBaxta come from, what is your inspiration?
UnkleBaxta came from a love for imagery; I’ve always loved the photographer David Lachapelle. He uses bright brash imagery in a pop-art inspired way, it’s quite bubblegum and candy coloured and then it has a cheeky or sinister twist to it. He does a lot of portraits of celebrities and captures an aspect of their personality in the images. I worked at a bar throughout uni and spent a lot of time people watching and taking photos, each image told a really good story whether that was a bunch of spray tanned girls gossiping or a couple. I started using the images and making collages which tried to tell the story. Each line has a small text which tells the story in the design and it just came from there, I just thought that they would really work on t-shirts and that’s where UnkleBaxta was born.
Why did you call your label UnkleBaxta?
I don’t really have a great story for this and when you’re studying fashion I think you are always
thinking about what your label could be and it’s quite a big deal but nothing ever really fitted. And then one day the words Unkle and Baxta popped into my head, I don’t know why, I liked the way it sounded because it’s quite catchy and that was it really I just used it. I should really make a story up about it (laughs).
What’s the ethos behind your label?
It’s about young people being true to their age, having fun, slightly cheeky, dressing up, going out, having good memorable nights, it’s just about girls making mischief and being girls.
Sounds like a lot of fun...
Yes, it’s lots of fun.
From the pictures it looks like a nice environment to work in, it seems like you have a little family?
Yeah I’m really lucky I have a really great bunch of girls that model for me, they all come from friends or friend’s sisters, someone who knows someone and all that I ask before they go out is to have as much fun as they can. It’s never really been about walking like a statue down the runway; it’s been about strutting, dancing and personifying the brand. I have been really lucky, one of my best friends does all the photo shoots for me, she really cares about the label as much as I do so that’s why it works well and that’s why I think it’s a nice environment. All of the girls care about the label so it feels like a family thing.
So how big is the team behind you?
When I’m designing it’s justme I do all the design, there’s no one else involved in that process. But when it comes to a show its all hands on deck, my sister will host for me, and she deals with all the press and the girls will model, I’ve got a few friends that will do makeup. It’s quite a big team when it comes to shows and the choreography and stuff but generally day-to-day it’s just me working.
You have had some fashion shows to promote the label already. How did they go? Do you have any planned for the near future?
Yeah they are really great they are a great way to show the label off and they are really fun as well,
basically we just have a bit of a party. It is a hell of a lot of work to do a show but with the people around me helping, it makes it work. They do well and we are lucky enough to have got a lot of good press from it and we have had some
interesting people show up. We have a show coming up in the summer.
Will the show in the summer showcase your latest
collection, The Lost Girls?
Yeah it will, we are about to show that at a trade show, which is in a few weeks. We will show that then to all of the buyers and the press so that’s when it will be shown to the industry but we will be showing all of that in the summer.
How successful do you think that your label has been so far?
I think we have achieved some really great things. We have got some good exposure. I’ve studied fashion at University but I’ve never studied business or marketing or anything like that so I think in that way it has done really well. We have got things that other bigger labels would be impressed by. But there are still loads more to achieve, loads more to do.
How big do you think the label has got so far?
Well we are not anywhere near what we want to be but we are on our way. We are at the early stages, it takes such a long time to get a base following and you have to be ready to be able to cope with things. We had Topshop approach us last year at a trade show and were willing to take it on as a directional label which is amazing and would change the label completely but you have to know that you will be able to deliver to them and there’s a lot of learning to do before you can do something like that.
Where do you want your label to be?
We want the brand to be a relatively known brand and we want it to stick with its brand image, our brand
image is quite strong. We want to be in the right places so we want to be in shops nationally, we would hope to be in boutiques in places like Manchester, Liverpool, Brighton and London, so it’s just about spreading the label around and hoping it becomes better known.
There has already been celebrity interest in your
label, Lily Allen, Steve Jones, Pixie Lott, how has that been for you? To get your label out to the
celebrities.
Yeah that was amazing. It’s obviously a great help when someone that has a big influence takes interest and when I first saw the footage of Lily Allen wearing a t-shirt I did go out that night and celebrate. In January that year I had written down three things that I wanted to happen to the label and one was to sell in the Laden Showroom on Brick Lane. One was to have Lily Allen wear it and the third was to sell to Topshop so just weeks before we had got the Laden Showroom so it felt like things were really happening so seeing her wear it was obviously a big deal.
So it’s a really exciting time at the moment for UnkleBaxta?
Yeah definitely, I’m quite pleased with this
collection so hopefully we will get some interest and push it a bit further.
What would you say is the most exciting thing that has happened for you and the label?
I think last year when Topshop were considering the label, the feeling of having a heavy weight like Topshop
interested in something that you have created is so exciting! Obviously when Pixie Lott showed up at our show that was exciting and seeing the press it was like lights flashing everywhere, so that was also exciting.
Tell me about your journey from your initial idea to today.
It has been a complete
adventure. I’m incredibly lucky to be able to do it and what’s really lucky is how much I’ve been able to learn. When you study at uni you don’t learn the same way as you learn when you’re in the deep end. You learn first-hand. You get it wrong, and then you get it really wrong and eventually you get it right. It’s been really good! It’s been really fun; I get to do what I want to do so it’s been great!
What does the future hold for UnkleBaxta?
I think this year I’m
focussing a lot on sales so we’re going to be doing less shows this year. I think we will probably have one show whereas before we have had a few shows in a year but we are going to focus on the other side of it, and really just to make a
presence nationally, up North and other areas. It would be great to get
presence internationally but that’s really what we are aiming for.