IN PRAISE OF: BEATRIX POTTER
Beatrix Potter Photography Credit: Frederick Warne & Co.
When it came to designing our brand-new Official Peter Rabbit™ Collection, who better to inspire our design team than Beatrix Potter herself? Read on to learn more about this legendary author and illustrator, creator of one of the world’s best-loved children’s characters…
I f you’re a fan of Joules, you’ll know the concepts behind our collections don’t stem from the catwalk or fashion trends, but from the Great British countryside all around us. When designing a new collection, our designers are likely to be found scavenging for wild flowers and shrubbery in the vast countryside with a paintbrush in their hand.
For AW19 we chose the Lake District as our location for inspiration. A haven for many creatives over the centuries, we were lured by the artists that preceeded us, like William Wordsworth, L.S. Lowry and, of course, one of the most legendary creatives of all, Beatrix Potter. While in the area we just had to make the pilgrimage to Hill Top, the 17th century home of Potter.
Arguably one of the world’s best-loved children’s authors, it was here as a child that she first found freedom from the constraints of her London home and was free to roam the countryside, sketching and observing animals. It was here that the character Peter Rabbit was born.
I do not remember a time when I did not try to invent pictures and make for myself a fairyland amongst the wild flowers, the animals, fungi, mosses, woods and streams, all the thousand objects of the countryside; that pleasant unchanging world or realism and romance, which in our northern clime is stiffened by hard weather, a tough ancestry and the strength that comes from the hills.
– Beatrix Potter
Using the proceeds of the first editions of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Beatrix bought Hill Top Farm in Sawrey where she learned the art of sheep farming, sketched and wrote her timeless children’s books. The below is a picture snapped by our designers of Yew Tree Farm, where the 2006 movie ‘Miss Potter’ was filmed. What a charming place to spark creative inspiration!
A self-taught naturalist, in later life she became interested in conservation and became friends with Canon Rawnsley, one of the founding members of the National Trust. She died in 1943 leaving 14 farms and more than 4,000 acres of land to the National Trust. The Trust still owns it today, preserving it – as Beatrix wished – for future generations.
Containing so much heritage, history and tradition, our designers soon found themselves putting paintbrush to paper and allowing their imagination to flow.
Inspired by Beatrix Potter’s original illustrations, our new Official Petter Rabbit™ Collection is bursting from the seams with traditional, character and of course, mischief.
Beatrix Potter was very much inspired by her surrounding areas and the menagerie of animals around her. That’s how we work too, as we’re very much inspired by the countryside. So, the Peter Rabbit™ Collection just made sense, and came together seamlessly and naturally.
– Chloe Smith, Creative Manager at Joules
Discover a remarkable new collection inspired by the world-famous Tales of Beatrix Potter.
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