Good morning and happy Tuesday to you all! I hope that you all had a fabulous weekend and have had a lovely start to the week! Last week not only was is it little Prince George’s first birthday, it was a Circus in the office…literally! On thursday we held the Alex and Alex’s Christmas press day and it is all hands on deck! It was a ‘crimtastic time for all!’
This week on CCT I have Justin and Thea – the duo behind the fabulous brand Mini Preen! We were very lucky to have the brand at our AW14 press days after our sister company Vida Kids took them on board! The response from press was fantastic as they favoured the ‘mini me’ looks and gorgeous campaign imagery!
Anyways…enough blabbing from me! Let’s get this show on the road!
Guys thank you so much for joining us this morning! Can you start off by telling us a little bit about yourselves…
Good morning! Well.. our names are Justin and Thea and we are the only family in fashion!
Where are you from?
We both grew up in the Isle of Man but on opposite sides of the Island! We lived about 20 miles apart!
What a small world! I have never been to the Isle of Man before! Did you always know you wanted to go in to fashion?
It kind of happened organically! We both began in fine arts but found ourselves going down more of the ‘fashiony’ route.
Mini Preen SS15
How did the opportunity with Preen arise?
After doing different bits and bobs we realised ‘we could do this on our own’
Too true! And what an amazing brand you have built! How did it feel to debut your first collection at LFW in 2001?
It was completely surreal!
It must have been an amazing feeling! How many shows do you do a year? Do you have a favourite?
We showcase twice a year and design six collections per year. Both of the shows are interesting in their own way because you see devore and silk in summer and furs in winter!
Mini Preen SS15
After we had our girls we couldn’t help but design pieces for them!
Where do you draw inspiration from for the collections?
Justin: We draw inspiration from our women’s range! We literarily decided to shrink down some of our women’s styles after our girls kept asking Thea about her dresses.
The campaign imagery of the mum and daughter is stunning! It had such a positive response at our AW14 press day! Do you like to have similarities in the adults wear and childrenswear?
Yes most of the designs are the same as the designs in the womenswear collection!
Can you talk us through the AW14 collection? What have we got to look forward to?
You are in for a treat! There are great Christmas party dresses and cute warm winter coats!
So excited for Christmas already! Who looks after your sales for childrenswear?
Vida Kids in London and our in-house sales team
Mini Preen SS15
Where can individuals buy Mini Preen from?
In the UK you can buy the collection from Harrods, Selfridges Alex and Alexa and Children’s Salon. If you want to purchase pieces internationally you can go to Mon Petit in the US and Boutique 1 in Dubai.
That’s great that it’s stocked internationally already! What projects are you working on at the moment?
Alot! There is the shoe collection that we started doing for AW14/15, Sunglasses, Swimwear, Preen Line and of course the Main show collection.
Wow busy busy! Will we be seeing Mini Preen on the Preen catwalk at LFW?
Let’s see…
So exciting! The suspense! What trends should we be following this AW14?
Definitely the Star Wars Trend! It’s one of our favourites!
Star Wars? Ok this is one that I am going to have to be convinced on! Thank you so much for joining me today Justin and Thea! It has been great having you on CCT! I am so excited to see the brand new collection on the catwalk in September and will be keeping my fingers crossed that we get a surprise of mini ‘Mini Preen’ models!
Join me next week from Spain for lots more gossip and chinwagging
Please note all images supplied by Preen.