Tocca Spring 2012 and interview with Emma Fletcher

Emma Fletcher is super-talented designer and currently creative director at Tocca. Most of the pretty-clothes-seekers remember Emma as the brain behind super-lovely Lyell. Today, behind Emma are two successful collections for Tocca, loved both by critic and shoppers. The new spring 2012 ready-to-wear collection is all about prettiness, but also is very practical. Scalloped edges, lace details and crochet embellish these lovely pieces created for upcoming warm days.

I talked to Emma about new collection, Tocca and of course inevitable Lyell...

You are in Tocca for last two seasons, and the company didn’t have RTW line before you came so can you tell us a story about how collaboration happened?
Tocca is a big beauty business, selling across the world. They started clothes in 1994 but they had been fazed out. So essentially it was a re-launch. The owner and I met and instantly hit it off. We both saw the precession of the line and wanted to work together to transform TOCCA RTW in a new sophisticated collection.

I wrote on my blog that you left us broken-hearted when you decided to close the chapter of Lyell? How did you feel at the time? Was it hard decision?
It felt right. I felt like moving on. I am a big believer of jumping off the cliff so that the next chapter will come. I think it would have been harder at a different time because Lyell was my life with no separation. But I had just had a baby a month before and the lease had run out on the store and it just was automatic. I was relieved in a certain way too. Freedom from it. It was an intense 7 years. I was surprised at the response I got when I closed because you think you’re on your own when you work intensely. There was no regret. Tocca is a progression.

My impression of Lyell girl was the girl that possessed sensuality of 1930s, frisky vibe of roaring twenties and was enough interesting and refined to get a role in French 1960s film. How different or maybe the same is Tocca’s girl? 
Nice description of Lyell girl - I like the frisky part. Tocca girl is clean, modern, sophisticated. It's stripped down, less frills, less fuss, more edge. But still oozes feminine sexuality. Still frisky. 

I’ve read somewhere that you don’t sketch or sew. Is it hard to pass on your ideas and visions to your team?
 I am not trained, I never sketched but now do bad drawings, which helps me more than anything. Yoko, our pattern maker is basically all the talent and knows now how to interpret my ideas. We have worked together about 5 years now.

Who is person behind once Lyell now Tocca wallpapers/ collages?
ME, I started doing it to use other photos that were edited out of shoot and now I am an obsessed collager.

Where are Tocca collections manufactured?
All the hand knits are produced in Peru and Bolivia and the ready to wear is sampled in NY and production is made in China. The industry in NY just does not exist anymore. China has surpassed the quality.

Where do you get inspiration from for your collections?
Photography, drawings, nature at the moment for prints.

Did you have anyone in mind when you created spring collection, or it was just a practical and full collection for classy girl in the springtime?
Now that I have done another collection in between it's hard to remember. I think of the girl as Jasmine now, the British model we used. I do know I started out thinking about envelope shapes. It is a practical collection, wearable knits etc.

Your selection of fabrics is very refined and you have interesting affair with lace. Why lace?
I love lace. I am using it in a different way at Tocca. A very strong, graphic, unfussy way. It makes so much sense to me, have those transparent shapes.

Details come at the end of designing process or do you immediately know what you want to achieve?
At the beginning mostly, but no I do not always know what I want to achieve, sometimes things evolve.

Your favorite piece from the spring line?
Print shorts and matching blouse, blush and black organza dress and crochet pieces..

What does girl need in her spring closet?
SHORTS, and scalloped handbag.

What are you wearing this spring? 
Sleeveless scallop top, and I hope this summer rouch butt bathing suit!

A day with Emma Fletcher would look like….
It's not pretty, I don't know if I should describe.... wake up with a baby on me, take my son to school, get to work....

PHOTOS IN COLLAGES PROPERTY OF TOCCA/ EMMA FLETCHER 

THANKS TO EMMA, TOCCA AND ALEXIS FROM LEXAMEDIA 

For misslikey readers there's a 15% discount code (SPRINGINTOCCA) on the new spring collection at Tocca online store

Lyell, Emma and Tocca

I was the one of those girls that had broken heart last year when I heard the news that New York City’s label Lyell is saying goodbye. Emma Fletcher, designer left very emotive note on her website for all her fans. I was the one that was also touched by her words and amazed with her passion. Although I’ve never stepped in Lyell’s boutique in New York’s Nolita nor I don’t know Emma Fletcher in personal, this news made me sad. At that time in my life I was thinking more about the ethics of a fashion, market and a consumer behavior so after the news that Lyell is shutting down with huge discount I was making presumptions of what happened to label. Is it because of the fast fashion and ability that you can buy very similar blouse for three times less money that’s created by a child? Or Emma wanted to close the chapter of success that label achieved? Or Emma couldn’t fit in the character of today’s designer that’s creating in sly manner. Why slyly? Because many of those that are making our clothes have to believe that we cannot have in the closet that we really need. Your pants are not exactly what you want but you going to buy them, and another year you would buy yourself another pair. Ordinary consumer could not believe how much of psychology is behind his pants. That’s how it goes in fashion, this is not the fairest world and fashion is part of that world. So what Emma Fletcher did differently? What kind of fashion is the fashion that Lyell used to offer? Unquestionably, that wasn’t fashion based on a trend. Forget about that. Patterns were very classical and feminine, details were smart, and collections were similar. Lyell girl was the girl that possessed sensuality of 1930s, frisky vibe of roaring twenties and was enough special to get a role in French 1960s movie. All that means that from Lyell you could get something that you will wear and could wear in a different ways. To go back on example of the pants that means you need just two pair of pants and you won’t buy eight other pairs if these are perfect. In the term of what fashion means today, could we even call that fashion? I don’t know and I am not very smart nor educated to declare that. But what I know is that Emma Fletcher did something beautiful and very personal. That was a kind of clothes that you would make if you were designing for yourself; not boring but what you need. So I believe that Emma Fletcher is designer in the true sense of the word. She knew exactly what girl needs and in the world of phonies that’s not a very usual case. One more thing that makes Emma not so ordinary designer is the fact that she doesn’t sketch or sew (interview in W mag). Seems that you don’t need the “old-school” for the “what’s good or not” feeling.

After all of this scribbles of mine, you are familiar with my connection with Lyell, so you understand how surprised I was when I heard recently that Emma teamed up with beauty brand Tocca to create their ready to wear line (Tocca had a popular RTW line back in the 90s). For the first collection this autumn Emma did a great job. Like in the case of the Lyell, there are plenty of lovely basics that can be romantic or sophisticated. Or both. Again Emma Fletcher paid attention to every detail so lace is imported from France, and wool for coats is from Italy and England. And every blouse is made in silk. So if social means that you have to pick the groups that determine you as a persona I can say I belong to the nostalgic Lyell group that is happy that Emma Fletcher is back.

IMAGES IN COLLAGE VIA LYELL, TOCCA