Amelia’s Magazine | Anna Glowinski’s AnaNichoola – Girls Allowed!

anna-pic-left-with-design-tAll photographs courtesy of ananichoola.co.uk

AnaNichoola, stuff a label created by avid cyclist Anna Glowinski, is fast growing fashion brand with a simple idea; attractive, affordable and convenient fashion for female cyclists. With the growing popularity of cycling as a means of exercise, being eco friendly, and indeed for fun, her range of clothing and accessories has catered to a market close to her heart. As Anna explains; ‘We (female cyclists) don’t want to apologise for who we are, or hide our pony tails under our helmets; feminine style doesn’t mean kissing goodbye to performance, and that is what AnaNichoola is trying to embrace.’ I met up with Anna to chat about her designs and passion for the sport.

What made you start designing cycle fashion for women?

It was sort-of an accident, I mean, I’ve always had conversations with women about the lack of nice, practical female cycle clothing. It was always just too practical. So I handmade some fun bits and pieces – the LoveLocks and SPD heels for fun, and people loved them, so I decided to try and do more stuff. Once I committed myself to the plan, the ideas kept on coming! It was obviously a suppressed desire from being a vain lady cyclist my whole life!

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With all the media attention you have been getting, have you noticed an increase in sales?

Yes, I have. AnaNichoola is still in the baby stages, so sales are often an after thought. The press happens, the hits to my website go up, someone important e.g. a shop, asks me about my ability to mass produce, I start thinking about that, and then suddenly a member of the public wants something and I’m like, oh yeah, that’s what this is about. Up to Christmas sales increased so I reckon people who saw AnaNichoola two months ago probably held off until later to buy. Ultimately, I’m really glad for the press coverage because for one, it is nice that they believe in my products, and for two, I can’t afford any advertising right now.

Do you have new designs for combating these winter months?

I launched my technical designs at this year’s Cycle Show in October, so it’s quite a funny time to launch. I have tried to think about who will be buying right now, for example, Harrods stock The Curve jacket, but I changed the lining from the one at the show to have a more thermal winter lining. My next range is aimed at Spring/Summer, although some pieces will simply have the technical aspects of the same designs changed.

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With people trying to be more environmentally friendly, what would you advise new cyclists, especially when travelling around cities?

I’d advise any new, or experienced, cyclist to get cycle training. I’ve ridden on the roads my whole life and was very confident going for training rides as a young teenager on fast moving roads, but I had cycle training when I was 20 and I can’t bear to think about how I used to ride before! Cycle training was developed after a group of people looked at the stats of cycle incidents, deaths and injuries and they worked out strategies for cyclists to avoid dangerous situations. I think that every cyclist should have it. If they don’t, then the biggest thing I would recommend is never, ever undertake a lorry or a bus- they can’t see you!

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Where do you get inspiration for your designs from?

The technical side comes from my experience as a racing cyclist; when you ride hard or for long hours it becomes very evident what a “bad” piece of cycle clothing is. I want my things to be technical, to perform and to look good. I keep up to date with mainstream fashion trends and try to combine that with the performance. I also get inspired by things I like; there is no market strategy, it’s just a thought that I like it, my Mum likes, and my mates like, then I’ll go with it.

model-wearing-earing

What is your personal favourite piece from your collection?

AHHHHH! I don’t know! The things I wear that fit best with my day-to-day living is the Curve Jacket, ball-bearing earrings and a bamboo base layer. However, I feel super cool when I wear the high-heeled SPDs or one of Shannon’s (accessories designer at AnaNichola) lairy belt buckles.

Ananichoola

What would be your all-time dream bike to own?

Good question! I want one bike for each type of cycling. I want it to always be ready to go, with no punctures and the correct pedals on it. I need a good off-road bike right now, as I’ve been doing the season on a road bike with knobbly tyres. I need a new set of wheels, and some curly handle bars. I wouldn’t mind a tandem for going on holidays with my boyfriend. I want to re-spray my road bike pink and gold. I need to get the rust off my BMX. I want a lighter jumps bike and a newer track bike. Ooh, I also badly want a Dutch bike, or a Pashley. And maybe an electric bike for when I’m tired. And a friendly talking bike, that knows the route and sings songs to me, that can fly sometimes….

AnaNichoola designs are on sale in Harrods, or www.ananichoola.co.uk where you can read more about Anna and her team.

Categories ,accessories, ,accessories designer, ,bicycles, ,BMX, ,cycle show, ,cycle training, ,cycling, ,Dutch bike, ,Eco-Design, ,ecofriendly, ,fashion, ,Fashion Clothing, ,female cycle clothing, ,Harrods, ,Pashley.

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Amelia’s Magazine | Behind the Scenes at Print Club London: an interview with Kate Newbold Higginson

Print Club London interview-wall

I first met Kate Newbold Higginson when she was just setting up Print Club London and only had a pop-up shop on Brick Lane. Since then, the collective have gone on to great things, with a huge screen printing workshop in East London as well as their new gallery and workspace, Millers Junction. Artists like Bob Gill, Kate Moross and James Joyce call the studio home, and every year the fantastic Blisters exhibition showcases their talents alongside that of unknown newcomers. I caught up with Kate to look back at the studio’s success story, and to find out what it’s like screenprinting bags for Stella McCartney and throwing parties for Pinterest.

Print Club London interview-Fred Higginson, Rose Stallard, Kate Newbold

Fred Higginson, Rose Stallard, Kate Newbold

Tell us about how you and your husband Fred set up Print Club London; artist Rose Stallard is involved too, isn’t she?

About 10 years ago Fred set up Absorb Arts which is a fine art charity based initially in a church in Norwich that he converted into studios. Then he came to London and we did the same in London. Rose Stallard, our Creative Director, knew Fred from Norwich University of the Arts and rented space from us. One day she asked Fred if he would consider setting up some screenprinting studios as she couldn’t find anywhere suitable and thought that lots of other people would want space too. She wanted it to be like a gym with open access where you could rock up on your BMX (this was Rose’s main aim, there had to be BMXs!) and screenprint all night and day. And so Print Club was born; Fred set it up with Rose’s creative help and screenprinting know-how and it went from there. I joined a year into the saga after leaving my job in film. Fred and Rose were great at the creative side of things, producing amazing artwork and getting artists on board, but they were pretty bad at actually managing a business, so I set about ensuring we had clients, members and could feasibly run as a studios. The fun stuff, no less!

Print Club London interview-joanna ham

You have lots of other established artists under your roof, like Bob Gill, Kate Moross, James Joyce and Margot Bowman. Who are the rising stars whose work we should be snapping up now?
Joanna Ham (above) works on these amazing fashion pictograms! And her bunnies are uber cool and popular. She produces two very different styles, both incredibly successful Rosie Emerson works with very interesting techniques, and again, is often influences by the fashion world.

Print Club London interview-EGG-AND-SOLDIERS

Claudia Borfiga is one of my techncians and a genius! She’s very witty and that comes through in her illustrations: the one above is titled Egg and Soldiers.

Print Club London interview-MEOW Cassandra Yap

Cassandra Yap draws lots of naked women and has a taste for fetish; her work sells very well!

Print Club London-Reiner

Johnathan Reiner is a doctor by day and print maker by night!

Print Club London interview-Desk-space-London-Millers-Junction-01 (1)

As well as screenprinters, you have lots of illustrators working in Millers Junction- can you tell us a bit about this space?
This space is our most recent addition to the print club warehouse. I was actually renting office space with a previous company in Shoreditch and it was pretty basic, all in separate rooms. There was no camaraderie, no tea meetings and most importantly no shared jobs or feedback on work which is hugely important when you are freelance and work alone or in small teams. You really want to talk about your work, pass jobs around and get ideas from others. I noticed how many people in Dalston sat in cafes with laptops so when we took over the final space it seemed obvious to me to set up an open plan deskspace for creatives.

The idea is 39 desks are rented out and we provide you with all you internet needs, tea, coffee, bike storage, dog storage (we have a few hounds here) cake, meeting room, gallery hire, free use of the print club and a workshop. Plus lovely extras like events – in December Jameson Whiskey came in to give everyone a whiskey tasting event, Gü Puds brought in cakes and then there are less exciting but useful events like a VAT talk for small businesses from our accountants. The idea is that we support small businesses and individuals so that they look from the outside to their client like a bigger more professional company. We also do stuff like sign for courier deliveries – it’s a basic thing but in my old office nobody would do it! When you work alone it’s a basic requirement that someone can sign for your deliveries. And we try to achieve these little details in everything we offer at Millers Junction, it’s important to us that people here love it and we provide one of the best and more affordable deskspaces in east London. You can find out more about our studio space here.

Print Club London interview-Blisters 2

You also print for clients like Stella McCartney and even Facebook and Twitter- do you think screenprinting has become ‘cool’ again because of the backlash against the digital age? I suppose this could apply to the rise in popularity of illustrations over photographs too…
Yes, we are super lucky. We print beautiful bags for Stella McCartney, her ethos is very green and ethical which makes us a good fit. Everything here is waterbased and the energy costs for manufacture are low as its hand made. So we can produce bespoke initial bags easily and very well- it’s a lovely commission. Likewise we have been doing workshops and events for Pinterest to get bloggers into the studios with some great people like Jo Robinson and Hattie Stewart. Facebook invited us in to give a screenprinting workshop too.

People want to manufacture again, it’s what Britain was so great at and I guess people are realising that not only is digital not always so exciting but that we are brilliant at making things. And screenprinting is just one of the products we are fortunate in the UK to have not only great artists to produce work but also now great facilities like ours. We bought our warehouse two years ago so luckily we won’t be priced out of Dalston! Its one of the few remaining commercial factories in the area, lots are now flats so it was important to us and the previous owner, whose father ran it as a sewing factory, that it stayed commercial and a manufacturing hub- which it most certainly is. We have 50 fine artists upstairs, 70 print makers a month in print club and 39 designers and illustrators in Millers Junction. We are literally churning out work. Although I’m sure much less than the sewing factory did in 1910! But we will get there.

Print Club London-WORKSHOP

How can people get involved with Print Club London?
Do a workshop and join up! It’s easy. You don’t need to know how to print, we can teach you everything in our workshop, and then you can become a member. We assist you in learning the ropes and producing new work and once it’s up to a level thats sellable- and this can take time for some and not for others- then we sell the work online in our gallery.

Or you can join our deskspace in Millers Junction – its £220pcm and you get free use of print club in that so its really cost effective for designers who want to do a little print making on the side.

Print Club London interview-Blisters

And lastly you can be part of our shows. Every year we commission artists to take part in BLISTERS our annual screenprint event. Its open submission so anyone can take part. Previous shows have included Eine, Jamie Reid, Kate Moross, Mr Bingo, lots of well known people! But also newbies or people still in college. We choose work based on merit not who you are.

Categories ,Absorb Arts, ,Blisters, ,BMX, ,Bob Gill, ,Brick Lane, ,Cassandra Yap, ,Claudia Borfiga, ,dalston, ,East London, ,Egg and Soldiers, ,Eine, ,Fred Higginson, ,Gü Puds, ,Hattie Stewart, ,interview, ,James Joyce, ,Jameson Whiskey, ,Jamie Reid, ,Jo Robinson, ,Joanna Ham, ,Johnathan Reiner, ,Kate Moross, ,Kate Newbold Higginson, ,Meow, ,Millers Junction, ,Mr Bingo, ,Norwich University of the Arts, ,Pinterest, ,Print Club London, ,Rose Stallard, ,Rosie Emerson, ,shoreditch, ,Stella McCartney, ,VAT talk

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