Win a Pyrus Blouse + Deryane chats to the designers behind Pyrus!

Pyrus Designers Lorraine and Ash

In-between my busy buying schedule I like to take time to get to know the designers behind the brands I am buying into. It is so important to know the background and ideas behind each brand, so I can relay the information to The Dressing Room team, enabling us to give our customers the best shopping experience possible. One of my most loved collections for Autumn / Winter 13 is the fabulous Pyrus. The prints really stood out to me and I love all the floaty blouses and tailored jackets and of course the stunning gillet!!  I found it hard not to buy into every single piece in the collection because I simply love it!

So I thought I would try and grab a minute with Ash and Lorriane – the designers behind Pyrus, to get some brand inspiration and of course a little bit of gossip about them and what they love! I am also giving one lucky person the chance  to win a fabulous Pyrus shirt in our latest competition. Keep reading to find out more!….

I love following you on Instagram and I noticed that you have two gorgeous little dachshunds just like mine, Coco, what are yours called? And how old are they?

We have two miniature dachshunds – Jasper, who is four and Daisy, who is two.

St Albans is great for walking Coco around, there lots of beautiful parks. Do you have any secret dog walking places in London you go to you can let me in on?

We love going on walks and have quite a few places that we visit: Greenwich Park and Blackheath: We live right next to the park so this our daily walk park. Everyone is very friendly and the views of London from the hill are just breath taking. Kenwood House: A favourite for Sundays! We go for a long 2-3 hour walk and then have a long lunch at the Kenwood. The Heath is lovely as you can select a woodland or open field walk depending on what one feels like. Hyde Park: This may seem like an odd one but we started to visit Regents Park when we had our son Oscar as the pedestrian path was good for the push chair and it was relatively flat. I highly recommend sitting by the duck pond and feeding the ducks. 

What does Fashion mean to you?

For us fashion is about finding a style that fits with your lifestyle. It should be effortless and make you feel good every time you step out your front door. The favourite blouse that you just can’t stop wearing, the dress that you found in the back of your closet and fell in love with again… That’s what we are about!

What do you love about London Fashion?

The one thing we love about about our job is that we get to travel a lot. We sell the collection to stores all around the world and our greatest inspiration is our home town – London. Women in London are some of the best dressed in the world. We love the different tribes – Chelsea, Shoreditch, Notting Hill, the list can go on. You can see the same dress styled in different ways and produce completely different results. London fashion is about individuality and that is what we love about it. 

When did you decide you wanted to be fashion designers?

Lorraine used to model when she was young and slid into fashion that way. She was exposed to some amazing designers and people when she was young and they inspired her to follow it as a career path. My father was a designer and my earliest memories are of Paris fashion fairs and seeing collections being designed. So, I guess we knew we wanted to be fashion designers very early on. 

 The AW13 collection is stunning by the way, when I was buying it was hard to choose which pieces to take away to The Dressing Room (as unfortunately I couldn’t have them all) Do you have any favourite pieces?

Probably one of the toughest questions you could ask us. We love each and every piece in the collection or we could never make it. The ones that do think are special are- The Jester printed blouse,  the fur gillet and the dip dye herring bone cape.

 How are your feelings about the Autumn Winter 13 trends? And which ones are your favourites?

We loved in particular the monochrome, maximalist – lots of prints, fun fur and outwear trends – all very exciting and different from each other. 

 What’s your favourite part about conceptualizing a design?

 Seeing it all come together! When months of research and theory manifests itself into a tangible garment. 

 Have you ever been walking down a street in London or anywhere else for that matter and seen someone wearing your designs?

Yes, it still gets us excited. 

If so how does that make you feel?

 The best ones are when you meet someone wearing one of our pieces and they don’t know who we are. In our heads all we think is, “I designed that on a snowy Sunday morning after we took the dogs for a walk!” 

Can you give our readers and customers a few clues about what to expect from the Pyrus SS14 collection?

The SS14 collection is one our best ones yet. We have gone back to our roots. There is loads of texture and print – from structured Hawaiian tropical to custom Ikat embroidered jackets.

You always have some great campaign images and the looks always look fantastic. They make me want to wear the whole outfit. How much input do you have into these?

Thank you for that lovely compliment. Yes, we are control freaks and oversee everything from selecting the team, location, outfits, model castings to the final images. It is as important as the designing is for us as it articulates how we see the pieces being worn. Saying that, we work with some amazing creatives and they always bring something amazing to the mix. 

A massive thanks to Ash and Lorriane for taking time out to chat to me- what a lovely couple! We are all love the current collection and  can’t wait to see what’s next!

Deryane x

COMPETITION TIME!!!!!! CLOSES 29TH AUGUST.

Now here for the fun bit… we are giving one lucky follower the chance to get their hands on a gorgeous PyrusJester Shirt, FIND OUT HOW TO ENTER BELOW…

Good Luck everyone…

Deryane and Coco Outfit 1

Deryane and Coco Outfit 2

Deryane and Coco Outfit 3