Q & A With Anna Paola

What I’ve realised is fashion is way more unglamorous then everybody thinks it is. I think some of the prime examples are photoshoots where we’re always running around and everythings always a mess and then we always have the most amazing outcomes.

There was this particular shoot that we did this one shoot 6 years ago on a beach in Naxos, where the results were absolutely stunning it all looked amazing, the swimwear looked amazing, and every time we took pictures of behind-the-scenes, we’re all under towels so we wouldn’t get sun burnt, with these hats. We took two rails and made a little tent, with the whole team huddled under there, and it was really windy and every time I try and find behind the scenes footage it always looks terrible. There’s other shoots where we shot in this amazing location called the Emirate hotel in Cavalla, in Greece and it was quite cold so every time I had pictures of the models posing they were wearing Santa socks.

Things always look better than they are.

My favourite part of the design process is definetly picking a subject that I love and geeking out on it. And I think every season, in order for me to be inspired to design something I have to be very excited about the stories I am telling.

So a lot of times it could be, grabbing some favourite music or something that I have always been interested in. And then just doing a deep dive into that subject.

This years collection, I’ve always been a massive fan of George Micheal, I really love his club tropicana song, so I think I listened to that on repeat, and then this was the first time we did a tropical collection. We went all out, with the polka dots, the umbrellas that you would have in the cocktails just to get this 80s nostalgia, the shiny fabrics on the swimsuits, the toucans, the palm trees, I mean we went all out for that. It was really fun and joyous collection to design. And every season we have fun behind it.

I started the brand when I was 27 years old, and now I am 41 years old. So the brand has evolved and grown up a lot with me.

I think the brand is a extension of part of me. So its very much changed. I started it in my living room, in a one bedroom apartment, and that’s what I was doing for a year. My living room turned into the workspace, a storage facility, I could barely fit to even walk through the corridor. Now I’m really proud of where it is, we have this wonderful store in Notting Hill, everything looks amazing. So I’m just really proud of it, and I’ve grown up as a designer, I’ve really worked on the print design and the storytelling and I hope to continue evolving it.

The collection is called Cabinet of Curiosities and its all about quirky collectables that people do and people have. So we looked at that. My favourite prints are In the clouds, so its basically a cabinet which looks out into the sky and I just find it completely surreal and otherworldly, its quite cool.

My other favourite is called the Dresden print, which is bejewllered insects, because I always love insects and I thought it was friendlier then real insects on a print.

This ones really hard, because I have very good memories from every collection. Also every collection marks a different period in my life. But I think one that meant a lot was the one we launched right after covid, SS24 Plaisirs de L’été, which was all about coming together, and connection and love. So we had people holding hands, people kissing, people dancing and it was a celebration of unity and being together again, and that one meant a lot to me.

To me, designing is all about a visual communication between a designer and the end consumer. So it’s all about creating something for Paolita, for me it’s really important it conveys joy and basically sends that out to the world,  that’s a bit cheesy, but that’s what it is!