About three summers ago I was having a blissful weekend away from London down on the south coast of England. One Sunday morning nothing was going to lure my friend and I from our luxurious comfy beds except that we had prepaid for hotel breakfast!
Not only is the idea of an endless grazing of fruits, cereals, cheeses, yogurts, pastries and everything else known to man on that bountiful breakfast table too much of a temptation, but also the promise of a cooked breakfast on top of that! Hotel breakfast is the best. You don't even have to do the washing up afterwards (more scrambled eggs please)!!!
So being washed and dressed and having eaten way too much there's not much to be done except a short, non-strenuous amble. So in to town we went, exploring the gift shops, antiques markets and nic-nac places.
It was on this lazy Sunday afternoon, with nothing particular in mind that I walked past a selection of artworks in a shop that just totally captured my imagination.
There are moments in life when you completely stop and pay attention. They pull you in, turn you around and then send you in a new direction. This was one of these. Though I didn't know it yet.
At the time I admired the artwork, clocked the artists name, Becky Bettesworth and looked her up on instagram because thats what I do when I like or am interested in something, I look them up on social media and follow them so i can be inspired and reminded.
Becky's work and life cycled through my feed for a few months until the Christmas holidays. I was exploring vintage tourist skirts, I'm really drawn to the idea of these and there are some just beautiful examples from the 1940s and 1950s. These printed novelty skirts often involve a scene or landscape featured in repeat around the border of a skirt.
I don't know about you but that period in between Christmas and New Year is when my brain goes to other places; holidays I'd like to take, places I want to go to, things I want to do, ideas I want to pursue.
It's little wonder then that so many things that had been bubbling away in that melting pot of my brain began to take shape into a new project at Revival.
I thought how fantastic would it be to translate the art of Becky Bettesworth into fabulous summer skirts. I could see them being along the lines of the vintage tourist skirts but modern, fresh, vibrant. Something you would love to wear on a weekend away by the seaside, when staycationing in the UK or on those hot heady days of British summer.
Becky's style is inspired by the vintage travel posters of the 1930s, thats what I had initially been drawn to when i first saw them. That dreamy nostalgia and something that is quintessentially English. That's why it seemed so perfectly suited to a collaboration with Revival Retro.
I emailed Becky that Christmas holiday and I am so happy she responded to my out of the blue request.
Art and fashion combine. You can buy the skirts featuring the art prints of Becky Bettesworth here
If you would like to know more about our collaboration you can read other blogs here.
Take a look at the full range of Becky's prints and posters at www.beckybettesworth.co.uk