Wynken’s Designer, Elbe, will be presenting her Autumn/ Winter 2019 collection in New York City for the first time this weekend, at Playtime (February 10-12). We met with Elbe and chatted about all things, life, people and Wynken. Make sure that you don’t miss it at Playtime NY!

THE Wynken cool factor

“getting the colours, softness and fit right is really important”

pP: Hi Elbe! Tell us a bit about the Wynken story and how it started.

Elbe: I started Wynken in 2015 after the birth of my first child Fara. Its a pretty typical story, before I had Fara lots of people asked me if I would design kids clothes since I was pregnant, I was pretty dedicated to a job designing mens and womenswear at the time so I would alway reply ‘ definitely not ‘. I surprised myself when I realised it was really something I wanted to do. Until being a mother I didn’t realise how much pleasure I would get dressing my kids and designing for them. I started off doing Wynken along side my mens and womenswear role which I was lucky enough to reduce to part time. It was only after the birth of my second daughter Wren that I have been solely focusing on Wynken and its really paying off. I absolutely love my job designing and creating Wynken, ironically so much more than my previous role.

pP: We love the cool factor that you give to each of your styles – how do you describe your customer?

Elbe: I would describe the parents as being much like me, in search of an element of cool but not that the kids look too grown up or fashion focused, children need to be comfortable and enjoy what they wear so getting the colours, softness and fit right are really important. I try hard to balance the product so that it's appealing to both parent and child, I find that really important.

pP: What inspires each new collection?

Elbe: I find inspiration in all sorts of places but each season bring all my influences together with music. For last season the collection was about the birth of Hip hop and for SS19 which is about to launch the sound track is from the Buena Vista Social club. The collection is called En La Habana, its inspired by pre revolution Havana with 'Cha cha cha' prints, ruffles, flamingos and flamenco, palm leaf and cigar box prints, that sort of thing.

pP: What's the collection age range?

Elbe: The kids range is 2-10y and for AW19 we will have a full range of baby items from 3m - 1.5y

pP: Where can we purchase Wynken?

Elbe: In the USA, we have around 11 stockests. Over the ocean, Klade, Flying colours baby, Tiny apple to name a few. We will be updating the stockiest list on the website ready for the launch on February 12.

pP: Congrats for winning the Milk Awards for Best Fashion Collection SS19 – tell us all about it!

Elbe: Thank you ; )) IT was a great moment. I didn’t expect it at all so it was a real surprise when they all (around 10 people) arrived at out booth with the award. It meant a lot, I’d been working on the summer collection while my youngest would be up 3-5 times every night so I was permanently exhausted. It felt like a massive achievement to have the collection ready and to be also very pleased with it so this was really special to get the recognition at that point in time.

Shop at https://www.wynken.co.uk

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