A new fan on E! News

We're delighted to see our Alison top has had no less than two outings across the pond in the last week, sported by E! News presenter Alicia Quarles who has recently interviewed Will Ferrell, Bruce Weber (a personal hero of ours) and Janelle Monae, to name a few. Last week she styled it simply, with a skirt and heels shown below, just before filming. Yesterday she made an appearance in the same top (bottom image), worn over a sheer blouse with tartan trousers. We love her style.

The Justine cardigan #2

We just wanted to share these great shots of two lovely ladies enjoying their Justine cardigans over the last couple of weeks.

Below: Hannah Rochell, Junior Fashion Editor at InStyle, wearing hers in the office and broadcaster Anita Rani, filming in Russia for the BBC, wearing hers over several other layers to keep out the freezing cold.

To find out more about how the Justine cardigan came about, read our blog post from earlier this year.

Latest coverage: The Guardian

It's National Wool Week, which always gets us a little overexcited here in the studio, as we're big supporters of the British yarn industry. We were delighted to be contacted by the Guardian for a quote on the subject of yarn in the UK and were name-checked in their article on this yesterday.

They then went on to feature our Marcella fringed cardigan in their round-up of best British designs. Not a bad start to the week!

The 'Osborne' and its namesake

The 'hero' piece of our SS14 collection is the 'Osborne' beaded jacket. Inspired in part by a Japanese kimono, its almost regal status within the collection was what inspired us to name it after the tiny private beach at Osborne, which was once royal residence to Queen Victoria.

The jacket itself is a heavy piece constructed using a British blend of silk and wool, with a foil coated yarn running through the panels, which gives it a structural quality. The opening edge has been adorned with rows of silver plated beads which have been hand-crocheted on, taking several hours.

On a more personal note, Osborne House has a great deal of personal significance: when my family & I moved to the Isle of Wight in 1996, we started attending their open air concerts and went every year until they stopped them two summers ago. It became such a family tradition that we miss our annual picnic on their vast lawn! More importantly, I love it there so much that my fiancé and I decided it was the perfect spot for our wedding reception in just over two weeks' time.

Recent coverage: The Dalstonist

We're one of the Dalstonist's top five fashion labels. Read the article here.

Summer knitwear, in miniature

We haven't shown at London Fashion Week this season in order to focus our energy on other projects (to be revealed...). Instead, a few lucky journalists across London will have received a miniature 'Springvale' mohair t-shirt in the mail over the last few days. Tatler's 'Front Row Fox' particularly liked his (you can see him appreciating it in the bottom image).

Here it is, with the human-sized version (worn with 'Luccombe' skirt):

Our latest collection, Spring/Summer 2014

London Fashion Week is nearly over for another season and autumn is very obviously here, but we've just unveiled our new collection for Spring/Summer 2014 and we're very excited to be sharing it with you. To view the full lookbook, click here.

This season Amy was heavily influenced by the dramatic British coastline and has named each piece after bays and beaches on the Isle of Wight where she grew up. The palette reflects the bleak yet beautiful colours of the coast in the early Spring months: grey, heather and sand with a touch of blue. The main yarn used this season is a British blend of wool and silk which has a rustic feel, perfect for our slightly schizophrenic seasons, particularly during the transitional Spring months.

New online store!

We have a new online store! A selection of pieces from A/W 2013 are available to buy, so check it out and let us know what you think.

Spring/Summer 2014 shoot

August is coming to an end but it's been a busy month for us all at Amy Hall. On 1st August our A/W 2013 collection went on sale in Wolf & Badger on Dover Street, Mayfair.

Ten days later we hosted a sample sale in Kentish Town with a selection of other London based designers, then a few days later shot our new Spring/Summer 2014 collection, which was incredibly exciting. I've included a sneaky behind-the-scenes shot below. We'll be unveiling the collection in the next few weeks, so keep an eye out.

SAMPLE SALE: 10th August 2013

Nearest tube: Kentish Town

Sheep of Steel

I took a much-needed break from the studio this morning to pop over to Islington and check out this year's New Designers exhibition at the Business Design Centre. There were some beautiful pieces of knitwear on show by various graduates but my main reason for going was to see Irem Arig, who I worked with on the Future Cities project last summer.

She has set up a new collective of UK-based spinners called Sheep of Steel and their HQ, conveniently enough, is just down the road from our own in Dalston. Their mission is to create unique, experimental,  yet beautiful yarns using all manner of fibres, colours and textures. In Irem's own words: the possibilities are endless.

We're hoping to work together again, perhaps on some yarn for A/W 2014 - I am particularly excited about some of the incredible fibres I saw this morning that I have never come across before; banana, soya and corn to name a few. These are all by-products of the food industry which makes them completely sustainable and eco friendly. They are as soft as silk and I can't wait to spin some up and see how they knit.

A welcome distraction

Friday afternoon in the studio:

Sample sale success!

Saturday's sample sale was a roaring success, with people coming by from all over town. The Invisible Line gallery in Dalston looked great and was the perfect venue for our little pop-up. We teamed up with Feather M and, leather & knit being one of my favourite combinations, it was a perfect match. If you couldn't make it down on Saturday, you'll be pleased to hear we still have one or two pieces left over, which can be found in the clearance section of our online shop.

 Ready to start receiving customers...

The sale in full swing:

TV presenter Anita Rani does a spot of shopping:

Click here to see the new A/W 2013 lookbook

Leathery knit

As anyone who knows me will attest, I am a big fan of leather and knit. So imagine my glee when I came across this amazing sweater by Les Chiffoniers. It's leather. It has embossed knitted stitches on the front. It is surely perfect?

Needless to say, it's on the shopping list.

[Image taken from the Les Chiffoniers website].

SAMPLE SALE 27th April

After the huge success of our last sale, we've decided to host another! This time at the Invisible Line gallery on Dalston Lane.
We'll be selling off press samples and stock from A/W 2012, as well as pieces from S/S 2012 and other very lovely knits, all at bargain prices. If the weather refuses to warm up, there's plenty to keep you cosy. If the sunshine suddenly arrives (here's hoping....), we can kit you out in something suitably summery. Here's just some of the pieces we'll have on sale, prices start at £30. Arrive early to avoid disappointment.

New press coverage: Absolutely magazine

Our Arambol shorts feature in this month's Absolutely magazine, on page 31. They're very complimentary about the collection as a whole and had the following to say:

"Knitting is officially cool. Dalston-based knitwear designer Amy Hall’s stylish, hand-knitted pieces are big sellers at Wolf & Badger. She and her team use high quality, predominantly British yarns to knit a wide variety of pieces that go far beyond the simple jumper or scarf, and it’s not all about a winter warmer either. The new collection takes inspiration from Goa, with a yellow Anjuna vest, Hampi joggers, Marari gown and these lilac Arambol shorts (left). It’s knitwear, but not as you know it."

The Nicolette skirt

One of my all time favourite bands is Massive Attack. I listened to them from around 1991 onwards and still can't get enough of Blue Lines. But it was Nicolette's (pictured below) voice that I really loved when I heard her on their second album, 'Protection'. I subsequently bought her album 'Let No-One Live Rent Free in Your Head' when it came out a couple of years later - which is an amazing, slightly bonkers CD which sounds as fresh to me now as it did when it was released.

The Nicolette skirt is the star piece of the Autumn/Winter 2013 collection. A ribbed panel wraps the waist and hips and supports more panels which are heavy, intricate layers of hand crocheted lurex, cashmere and brass chain. It took around 60 painstaking hours to make and the image below does not do it justice! For the time being, you will have to take my word for it that it feels amazing to wear. 

Spring/Summer 2014 inspiration

I can't believe I'm already starting work on Spring/Summer 2014 when, as I write, there appears to be little sign that Spring 2013 is even remotely on it's way. However, I always love this stage in the design process, when the last collection is done & dusted and new ideas begin to flow.

Having just returned from a much-needed break in South East Asia, I feel ready to dive back into my work. Here are some images of just a couple of the things I saw that helped to kick-start my creative brain....

Interview: My Chic City visit the studio

My Chic City came by the studio recently to chat with me about the brand, as well as raiding my wardrobe. I'll admit I was a little apprehensive about being in front of the camera (I'm far more comfortable behind the lens), but those guys are so easy to be around, I enjoyed it more than I thought. Here are a couple of shots the girls took using my iPhone. You can see the rest and read the interview on MyChicCity.com.

[Top photo: jacket by Vivienne Westwood, skirt Amy Hall S/S 2012 - click here to buy in sale, clutch Bracher Emdem, necklace Celia B. Left: silk coat Shanghai Tang, dress vintage Ossie Clarke, shoes Alexander Wang]

The Justine Cardigan

With the Autumn/Winter 2013 collection out in the open, I thought it would be a good idea to explain a little about how it came about and where some of the pieces' names came from.

After a rummage at my Mum's on the Isle of Wight last year, I unearthed a load of my old CDs from my teens - albums by Garbage, Elastica, Massive Attack, Tricky and, going back a bit further, Shakespeare's Sister and Tori Amos, to name a few. It got me thinking about the music specifically and that time in my life in general. I was a fairly upbeat and happy teenager but a lot of that music was quite angst-y and moody, which pretty much the vibe at the time.

So I returned to London with an armful of my old CDs and proceeded to listen to all of them, reminiscing in that gleeful, indulgent way that you do when you rediscover gems that you'd forgotten all about. The music inspired a feeling that harked back to the 90's and the grunge period and so the seed for the AW13 collection was sewn. The dark reds, blues and greys all reflect a mood that was inspired by that music.

One of my favourite pieces from this collection is the Justine cardigan, named after Justine Frischmann of Elastica (below - I'm sure I tore this picture out of the NME and had it on my wall). When 'Stutter' first came out I couldn't get enough of it - I remember waiting for it to come on the radio and frantically pressing record on the cassette so I could tape it. It had pride of place on one of my favourite mix tapes which, sadly, has long since disappeared. I thought Justine was super cool and her love triangle with Brett Anderson (who I had a bit of a crush on) and Damon Albarn only made me admire her even more.

The cardigan itself is based on a bestselling shape from a previous season and is so dense it could easily be worn in place of a coat. It's knitted in a British blend of cashmere & lambswool, so is incredibly warm and the shape means it's versatile enough to go with almost anything in your wardrobe.

End of season sale

Spring is on it's way, hooray! But we're still experiencing a few chilly snaps, which is why you should peruse our reduced Autumn/Winter 2012 stock while you can. As well as stock, we also have a few press samples, which are barely worn but priced accordingly.

You will also find some clearance stock from Spring/Summer 2012 - a good opportunity to brighten up your wardrobe as the warmer weather approaches!

Shop all of the above here.

Movie star

I leant some pieces to film maker Corinne Delaney at the end of last year and she's just sent through a couple of stills from the piece she was making. The colours are stunning, I just love these shots.

[Tokyo skirt from SS12, available to buy in the sale here].