5 Minutes with Deborah Lloyd, Chief Creative Director Of Kate Spade New York

Tell us more about the spring/summer 2016 collection.

It’s all about “saying it with flowers”. There are 30,000 blooms at the presentation and we wanted it to be an amazing experience. You know the excitement from running out and buying a big bouquet of flowers to celebrate the season of beginnings? I set out to achieve that. The colours were very much inspired by New York in spring. If you take the train to the end of the line, you arrive at Coney Island. There’s this amazing, kitschy funfair and the colours referenced that, too.

How do you think the Kate Spade woman has evolved over the years?

I think she has her own personality. We like to say that we’re a brand that’s about interesting women leading interesting lives. You see it in our advertising campaigns. That’s what we like to show. We want depth—anything from a 23-year-old supermodel who’s also an entrepreneur, a coder… Or a 93-year-old star like Iris Apfel, who is the most amazing character I’ve ever met. And then there are all these other women in-between. If they pick up a piece from Kate Spade New York, you know they make it a part of their own.

What’s fashion’s current mood?

I want it to be optimistic. There are so many crazy things happening in the world right now and I want fashion to be optimistic instead of depressing. It should be uplifting, makes you smile and feel good about yourself!

We picked up the word “imagination” for this collection. As a child, what did you imagine yourself doing?

I love flowers. I lived in the countryside and I would escape to the woods and make treehouses. I had so many adventures there! I was very in-tune with nature: I simply had to look at which flowers were blooming to know what season it was. But I also loved fashion when I was a child. So from an early age, I’d entice my grandmother into helping me make clothes. If I couldn’t find what I liked, I’d make it. I think I was destined to be a fashion designer. It’s the best thing ever, I love what I do and every day is different.

Do you have a favourite flower?

I love peonies. I love their fragrance. I have them in my garden and they always bloom in June—it’s my favourite time of the year and that’s when my birthday is!

By Gerald Tan