The Little Magpie Collaboration: Behind the Scenes with Amy Bell

Pre-Order 10.11.21 12pm GMT

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Launching 19.11.21 12pm GMT

 

We can't believe it, but the collection is finally HERE! How exciting! Can you tell us a bit more about the inspiration and your design process?

I absolutely loved the designing process! I've never done anything like that before (well, at least not since I was a seven year old mocking up wedding dresses with crayons), so it was really enjoyable, especially as we were doing it in deep, dark lockdown. It was a lovely, creative thing to throw myself into and it also stopped me from making, and consequently burning, any more banana breads. The scarf designs were inspired by beautiful Scotland, by colours and prints that I tend to gravitate towards, and a desire to fill the gap in people’s scarf wardrobe that was maybe missing. I did it over a couple of months, accompanied by several hundred cups of tea, pulling together images that inspired me – it’s better you don’t know how many photos of Alexa Chung were in the initial moodboards – along with samples of prints I liked. Once I started I couldn’t stop! The goal was to have three and I think at one point I’d only managed to narrow it to fifteen different designs. I sent the TBCo team over a very crude breakdown of my initial thoughts and designs and they worked what can only be described as magic on them and turned them into real digital mock-ups of what each scarf would look like, along with different colourways and pattern options for each. Honestly, I’m in awe of how they made them come to life! True wizards. From there we did a bit of a poll with the TBCo gals and with friends and family to try and narrow it down to which ones people were enjoying the most. After a lot of back and forthing – from me, that is, world’s most fickle person – we finally settled on the three you see before you now! I honestly couldn’t be happier with them, during the design process I was certain I knew which one was my favourite (I can’t say it out loud because I don’t want the others to get a complex) but, since seeing them in real life and having the chance to style them up, I honestly couldn’t choose. I think that’s the joy of them though, each lends itself towards a different look! They mean a lot to me and so I wanted to give them a special name to reflect that, so each scarf is named after a wonderful member of my family.

It's pretty amazing to remember they'll be out in wardrobes around the world! How do you hope people feel when they wrap up in your exclusive designs?

The thought of people actually wearing them out in the real world just made me a bit giddy! I’d love for people to feel cosy in them but, above all, I’d love for people to feel excited to wear them. I think scarves can often be something we just throw on as we leave, so I wanted to create ones that were a little bit different and that would maybe even inspire an outfit based around them, rather than vise versa. I really hope they’ll be something that’ll make a lovely present to yourself - the best kind of present - or for someone to open up on Christmas Day (the giddiness has just reached whole new levels with that thought). They’re fantastic quality so you’ll hopefully have yourself a scarf for life! They might even – along with the promise of hot chocolate – soften the blow of the colder weather creeping in each year.

Each scarf has such a different personality! Do you have any styling tips?

Go wild! I’ve been wearing them ever since they arrived and I’ve found that they go with a whole range of outfits. The double faced black, white and camel scarf is a great one for elevating an all black outfit (I found myself shouting, ‘I feel so chic!’ when I styled it like that, much to the detriment of Rob’s eardrums), the camel tartan scarf seems to go with almost anything, but I particularly love it when paired with an oversized trench or brown coat, and the green checkerboard scarf is excellent with everything I’ve tried it with so far. It’s a real stand-out piece so I found it could really elevate a simple outfit, or you can clash it with brighter colours or other patterns. The thing I’m most excited about it seeing how people style theirs, as I’m sure it’ll give me a whole host of new ideas of how to wear mine!