The duo who dress Notting Hill (well, their daughters anyway)

How one clothing brand became the yummy mummy’s secret weapon

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While all eyes were on Samantha Cameron and her choice of clothes outside No 10 for David’s last speech as prime minister, those in the know were talking about how she had decided to dress her daughters. In certain circles, a key social signifier is not just the sartorial style of an adult — or mother — but also that of her children. Still, not everyone is clued up as to which brand encompasses everything the most on-trend set want to say about themselves.

Sam’s decision could not have been bettered. She had to get it right because the children had rarely been seen, so their appearance was going to have maximum impact. Whenever they have been spotted in the past, their mother would have been extra careful: nothing too extravagant or precociously fashionable. As an outgoing prime minister’s wife, though, she could be more herself in her pick of outfits for her daughters — just as she and David will be when it comes to holidays (exotic white sands surely beckon, instead of rainy Cornwall).

So it was that Nancy and Florence were wearing dresses by the luxury clothing label ilovegorgeous. With this choice, their free-spirited and fashion-conscious mother was discreetly announcing that she has done her innings in terms of reining in and, in her new-found freedom, she can be herself once more. Ilovegorgeous is the small but high-end British brand beloved of anyone with taste who doesn’t want to kit their family out in kids’ couture, or the bland pastel-coloured, much more expensive but less imaginative French Bonpoint.

This was about the only luxury children’s brand of any note around until relatively recently. Most parents had to make do with ubiquitous and generic clothing from the high street because these two extremes were pretty well all that was available for children until ilovegorgeous — with a strong online profile but only two shops, in Notting Hill and Primrose Hill, London — was set up ten years ago by Lucy Enfield (wife of Harry) and Sophie Worthington.

Their clothes for girls up to the age of 15 are unique in two ways. First, the two friends do not look to other childrenswear brands for inspiration but instead to the adult catwalk — and then think how to adapt certain styles and make them appropriate for children; not precocious. Second, they do not abide by the same “rules” as other childrenswear designers: they deliberately choose unusual fabrics and silhouettes, and marry the two in unexpected ways. The singular style is often to be found in their clever twists — a splash of neon, for example, bordering a vintage print; or a “very English little girly smock dress in a hand-blocked Indian batik print’’, says Worthington.

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