Emma J Shipley launches new scarfs and a debut jewellery collection with Atelier Swarovski

A talented designer is one who can transfer one’s unique skill from one medium to another while maintaining her signature style.  

That's why it was exciting to view award-winning British designer Emma J Shipley's new AW14 POLAR scarf collection during London Fashion Week, when she also showcased her new exclusive collaboration with Atelier Swarovski, displaying her unique designs on scarves and jewellery based on the snow leopard.

Animals feature prominently in Emma's work.  Known for her creative illustrations she beautifully transfers onto scarves, Emma’s new POLAR collection was inspired by the expeditions of great British explorers like Scott, Shackleton and Parry.  All the designs are from Emma’s original pencil drawings created in her studio in Hackney, north London.   The theme is like a wonderland of the arctic landscape, one showing penguins surrounding an explorer’s hot air balloon while arctic foxes take on Odin’s mythical characteristics; another shows striped polar bears surveying the landscape while the Aurora flickers overhead.  The colour palette reflects the cold scenery that the images depict, in blues with an icy tinge, in shades of indigo to teal and turquoise, purples, magenta and cool pinks, contrasting with black and white, mixing in tones of mythical gold and silver.

The luxury scarf collection features a variety of sizes, from the classic squares to oversize squares;  primarily in silk, or in modal blended with cashmere or in silk and cashmere blends, all printed in Como, Italy.

Now for her new exclusive collaboration with Atelier Swarovski, for the brand's Autumn/Winter 2014 collection, Emma features the beautiful snow leopard, one of the most endangered big cats, onto a collection of silk and cashmere blend scarves, in a quietly sophisticated palette.

The collection also includes striking bold jewellery pieces - bold rings, cuff bracelets, and scarf accessories, all in the form of a stylised leopard.

The jewellery pieces, taking inspiration from the elegance, beauty and power of the snow leopard, are encrusted with geometric crystals expressing the unique irregular pattern of the leopard's spots.

In addition to Emma, Atelier Swarovski's collaborations this season include avant-garde fashion house Viktor & Rolf, fine jewellery Irene Neuwirth.

A Royal College of Art graduate, and a Texprint Alumna (2011), Emma J. Shipley won the Emerging Brand Awards at the WGSN Global Fashion Awards in 2013, and has exhibited in many important international trade shows including London Fashion Week, Fashion Scout and Scoop London, and have done collaborations with retail brands such as Anthropologie, Osborne & Little, shoe designer Nicholas Kirkwood and has sold her scarves at Liberty, Fortnum & Mason, Harvey Nichols and Wolf & Badger. 

All photos by Lucia Carpio for My Fashion Connect.