CARAMEL WOMAN STORE IN NOTTING HILL
At Caramel, there is nothing more we like to celebrate than great design with an interesting back story. This isn’t something which only relates to our own collection but also, the championing of other brands whose design and manufacturing ethos chimes with our own.
Our womenswear store in Notting Hill which opened a few years ago was conceived as a platform for a sense of discovery and as such, along with our own womenswear range which this season embraces geometric prints inspired by floor tiling and a nod to seventies trouser suits, there are beguiling, effortlessly modern pieces in the softest fabrics by Album di Familgia, Injiri and Apuntob.
“I’m drawn to labels which aren’t fashion brands as such, “ explains Caramel founder, Eva Karayiannis, “ but which are clothes that have been designed with functionality in mind too. A common thread between them is that there is an underplayed elegance, they are easy to wear and they are the foundation pieces for a wardrobe with longevity in mind. These brands are the very anathema of seasonal dressing, items which you might casually discard after.
Take something like Album di Famiglia which is a family brand where the children now work with their parents and the clothes are steeped in principles of ballet and performance so that not only is there an ease to the clothes but also purpose and that sense of utility.”
Favourites include Apuntob’s crinkle gold dress, a blue trouser suit with bow from Sono and Maria La Rossa’s always sublime bags. Enduring wardrobe staples at their very best.
CELEBRATING PRINT
At Caramel we like nothing more than celebrating print. Caramel’s in-house print archives are rich with geometrics, graphic patterns, bold paisleys, ditsy florals or spriggy bouquets, something which we drawn on endlessly as we continue to explore how we might develop them further.
Our prints are always considered within the context of Caramel’s sophisticated (pleasingly off- colour palette) which imbues them with a sharp modernity.
Prints were of a huge consideration when Eva Karayiannis first decided to launch Caramel over twenty years ago.
“For me, prints are very much embedded in the English culture in terms of textiles -more so than in other countries. Europeans didn’t tend to wear prints: the Italians not so much and Greeks even less so- it is a much pared back, almost minimal style.”
For Karayiannis, prints were intrinsic to the British heritage. One only need think of Liberty ….and so she started to carefully consider how she would rework prints, giving them a different life (and colours) and figuring out how she would also make them her own.
“It was fascinating to explore how different a print becomes with a little bit of tweaking, how a different colour palette- ours at Caramel is sophisticated in its use of ‘off’ shades which are also paired in a mismatched fashion - can radically alter the style of it.
Karayiannis wonders if this is perhaps more indicative of a European sensibility. In many cases, such as working with a floral or bouquet print she will remove some of the prettiness and add an unexpected colour which lends the overall effect a sharp modernity.
It is a process she repeats: experimenting with colour combinations which are anomalous.
“A lot of the time, it is about removing the tweeness. I want to give it my own understanding and approach, something which probably sits between a romantic style coupled with a minimal Greek aesthetic.