Some of the Sales & Support team’s favourites…

Hopefully you have all by now had a look at the spring collection, and I’m sure that there’s a great many of you still debating if, or perhaps, when you’ll get that top you spied. So to help you I have enlisted the opinions of our Sales and Support team to hear, or rather see which items from the new range they’d pick out as their personal favourites. I had the opportunity on Monday this week to go through the collection with them as a team, so it is just as exciting for me to hear their favourites. I should add that some of the team opted out of the lime light, and I can understand why, but thanks goes out to the ladies who were happy to take part in today’s blog post.

First to be photographed with her favourite item was Naomi. This is Naomi’s second season launch with Celtic Sheepskin, so it was interesting to see she that picked out such an unusual piece in the range; the Helical Shell Knit. In my travels to meet fashion editors, many of them, like Naomi, pull this out from the crowd of lightweight knitwear, commenting on the interesting and yet still very flattering shapes. Black notoriously sucks up a lot of light in photographs, so this top doesn’t jump out in the catalogue as much as other pieces, but it’s certainly not an item you should overlook…

Next to grab the opportunity to enjoy the sunshine for a few minutes was Lucy. Lucy has only just started in the team this week, adding to the numbers to help cover the calls that will start flooding in now that the new range has launched. Like Naomi, it was interesting to see that she went for a darker piece from our range, black clearly is very much as popular for summer as it is winter. The Envelope Neck Knit follows a well-liked style from the autumn winter catalogue, which is interesting as Lucy didn’t work with us on during this range. Clearly a multi-way top is a concept Lucy admires…

Then Vicki stepped outside into the glorious sunshine carrying a shade of top at the complete opposite end of the spectrum to what’s been picked so far; white. And what a popular colour white is going to be this season! We’ve got a good number of white tops in the new range, but Vicki’s clear favourite is the Lace Knit Slouch. We tried to launch this style last summer, but sadly the yarn proved difficult to get hold of in quantity despite many promises to us. So after 12 months of hard work to ensure it is possible to get this top for the many customers who were so interested in it, we are happy to announce its secure return for 2011…

And then I stepped inside to get the opinion from the two ladies looking after the Factory Shop today. First up was Louise who picked out the Linen Purl Stitch as her favourite. The soft, silky texture of this top is wonderful, brought about by having 33% silk spun around the linen – I can see exactly why Louise chose this one! In the photo below you can see just how delicate this is, as you can make out the silhouette of Louise’s body in the background through two layers of the fabric!

And my final volunteer for today’s blog post is Jo, who brought out a similar style top to Louise but going back to the charcoal tones favoured by Naomi and Lucy. Like the Linen Purl Stitch top, the Gauzy Mohair Jumper also has silk but this time there’s 50% wrapped around merino! It really is gorgeous. The flyaway texture of the top is like wearing a soft cloud - and it’s not just for wearing over bikinis, oh no. I’d strongly recommend a Cami top underneath or a full body swimming costume. And yes, you can wear it on the beach but so can you wear it lounging around on a summers day or going out for an evening’s dinner date. Like so many of our tops, it truly is very versatile…

So I’ll just have to wait and see what turns out to be popular from you, our customers.