Sophie Allport, who traditionally creates British homeware designs with themes based around nature, wildlife and country lifestyle, has recently launched a fun new range for children. We caught up with Sophie to explore the inspirations for her designs and her vibrant baby and kid’s range.
What made you decide to start designing the Sophie Allport range?
“Since I was little I’ve always loved to draw and paint, and I love creating designs that make people smile. My three boys are a huge influence for me, and that’s where my first design (Busy Bee) actually came from, they were obsessed with insects. It started with a few sketches for them and went on from there."
How do you think your designs have been influenced, if at all, by your own childhood and life experiences?
“The world around me has always inspired my designs, especially nature, wildlife, and the countryside. When I was a child, we would visit family in Africa and that’s where the inspiration for the Safari collection came from, which features elephants, giraffes, wildebeest, warthogs, zebras, and rhinos, pretty much all the safari animals that we saw in the wild.”
We love your baby and kid’s range, where does your inspiration come from?
“A lot of my inspiration for the kid's range has come from being a mother to my three boys and aunt and godmother to little girls. I wanted to design quality products at an achievable price that I needed when my boys were young. I’ve watched young children grow up and seen the excitement they get over certain themes and topics like farms, space, unicorns, dinosaurs etc. and it probably stems originally from books, there are so many amazing books out there. I had a lot of fun creating designs that I thought they would love and bring their enthusiasm for those topics into their everyday living.”
Do you have a favourite design in the baby and kid’s range?
“I always change my mind when it comes to choosing my favourite design, but usually, it’s the latest one, which is why I would say it’s the Space collection from the kid’s range. I love how inspirational, fun and colourful it is.”
If you were to recommend a parent one item from your children's collection, what would it be?
“It would have to be one of our kid's aprons as they are so handy and perfect for baking, painting sessions, playdoh or playing with water.”
Thinking about working for yourself, and running your own company - what's the best moment been?
“The opening of our first shop on Stamford High Street was a great moment for us and we’ve just opened our beautiful new outlet shop at our Head Office in Bourne, which is something we are also really proud of and has been a big moment for us as a company.”
If you did it all again, would you do anything differently?
“I would tell myself to not feel guilty about the life and work balance. It’s hard setting up a business which means sometimes I have had to make sacrifices and haven’t made every sports match or assembly, but equally, I've missed meetings and events too. It's all been a learning curve and you can't be in two places at once.”
Sophie Allport, who traditionally creates British homeware designs with themes based around nature, wildlife and country lifestyle, has recently launched a fun new range for children. We caught up with Sophie to explore the inspirations for her designs and her vibrant baby and kid’s range.
What made you decide to start designing the Sophie Allport range?
“Since I was little I’ve always loved to draw and paint, and I love creating designs that make people smile. My three boys are a huge influence for me, and that’s where my first design (Busy Bee) actually came from, they were obsessed with insects. It started with a few sketches for them and went on from there.”
How do you think your designs have been influenced, if at all, by your own childhood and life experiences?
“The world around me has always inspired my designs, especially nature, wildlife, and the countryside. When I was a child, we would visit family in Africa and that’s where the inspiration for the Safari collection came from, which features elephants, giraffes, wildebeest, warthogs, zebras, and rhinos, pretty much all the safari animals that we saw in the wild.”
We love your baby and kid’s range, where does your inspiration come from?
“A lot of my inspiration for the kid's range has come from being a mother to my three boys and aunt and godmother to little girls. I wanted to design quality products at an achievable price that I needed when my boys were young. I’ve watched young children grow up and seen the excitement they get over certain themes and topics like farms, space, unicorns, dinosaurs etc. and it probably stems originally from books, there are so many amazing books out there. I had a lot of fun creating designs that I thought they would love and bring their enthusiasm for those topics into their everyday living.”
Do you have a favourite design in the baby and kid’s range?
“I always change my mind when it comes to choosing my favourite design, but usually, it’s the latest one, which is why I would say it’s the Space collection from the kid’s range. I love how inspirational, fun and colourful it is.”
If you were to recommend a parent one item from your children's collection, what would it be?
“It would have to be one of our kid's aprons as they are so handy and perfect for baking, painting sessions, playdoh or playing with water.”
Thinking about working for yourself, and running your own company - what's the best moment been?
“The opening of our first shop on Stamford High Street was a great moment for us and we’ve just opened our beautiful new outlet shop at our Head Office in Bourne, which is something we are also really proud of and has been a big moment for us as a company.”
If you did it all again, would you do anything differently?
“I would tell myself to not feel guilty about the life and work balance. It’s hard setting up a business which means sometimes I have had to make sacrifices and haven’t made every sports match or assembly, but equally, I've missed meetings and events too. It's all been a learning curve and you can't be in two places at once.”
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