British designer Katie Alice was living in a picturesque cottage in the Northamptonshire countryside when she was invited by Creative Tops to collaborate on an exciting new tableware collection. Snapping up the challenge, Katie was keen to develop her signature style inspired by her love of English country gardens, vintage heirlooms and antique fabrics.
On her first collection, Cottage Flower, Katie says, ‘It was very much a learning process for me. I was working with a wonderful team at Creative Tops and learning a lot along the way.’ Since the overwhelming success of Cottage Flower, the Katie Alice brand has flourished. With each collection, Katie has evolved as a designer and the brand has developed a maturity that is evident in each new launch.
Katie cites the Pretty Retro collection as one of her most memorable, seeing it as a turning point in her style: ‘Pretty Retro is a statement collection for me as it was a real development for the brand. It was a step away from the vintage florals I started my journey as a designer with, towards a very different style that combined a variety of influences.’ Pretty Retro was inspired by one of Katie’s trips to Stockholm: the collection draws on retro pieces found at the vintage fairs she visited there and Scandinavian folk art, combining hand-drawn geo patterns with 1950s pastels.
According to Katie, one of the highlights of her career so far is another trip she took to Japan for the Hankyu British Fair. Katie was humbled to be invited by Hankyu, one of Japan’s biggest department stores, to attend their 35th trade show for two weeks. On Hankyu, Katie says, ‘They invite a collection of people that they consider to be the best of British, so it was unbelievably flattering that I had been selected.’ A wonderful trip, Katie fell in love with the design, food and the wonderful Japanese people.
Hoping to keep the brand constantly evolving in the future, Katie aspires to continue travelling and keep things fresh with quirky sources of inspiration. She says, ‘Inspiration surprises you, it comes from all sorts of unusual places when you least expect it. I was recently at a music gig in my spare time and the styling of the venue gave me a flash of inspiration. I had to write down the ideas there and then!’
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