The Lost Boys (and girls) // Photography: Nerys Jones | Styling: Cristina Aranda
I recently came across Ruff and Huddle, a children’s brand directed towards the kids with edge & toughness. After rummaging through, I had to get to know the hands behind. Here I’ve gotten to know James & Lucy a bit better & fallen hard for the pieces inspired by there own, Rufus and Hudson. Enjoy our condo below and be sure to check out the great discount and giveaway they’ve offered after.
Hi James & Lucy! First off, tell us about yourselves & your little ones. Who is behind Ruff and Huddle?
We’re a young family from East London (Lucy 32, James 28, Rufus 4, Hudson 2) – Rufus is about to finish his first year at primary school and loves lego, skateboarding, climbing and is always seeking a thrill. Hudson is super sweet and cuddly he loves his brother, he is always on his balance bike or jumping on the trampoline in our garden. We’re both educated through hands on working in the fashion industry – I guess music, art, and style, as well as good food and company makes us both tick.
When I first came across your brand, I was definitely feeling London street style. What all influences your design process?
London is the biggest influence on Ruff and Huddle, we are really lucky to live and work in a city that is such a melting pot of cultures and styles. Inspiration here is non stop. When we started out (AW13/ SS14) the collections were and are really small so we just set out to tick boxes of product that we didn’t see on the high street or from the high end brands – working with friends on graphic stories and styles we could put a fun touch to.
Moving forward our collections are getting way bigger so we’re trying to tackle them with broader themes that will no doubt be a little easier for the wider customer to get into!
There is a toughness to Ruff and Huddle for sure. Is there any key components you can always find in your pieces?
Ruff and Huddle’s attitude is inspired by youth cultures or movements from the past like the Punk, Hip Hop, Casuals, Skateboarding and so on – I think we definitely don’t want to be super cutesy or anything like that but we also don’t want to have slogans that say “Hey, we’re different look at us”. We just aim to make good, quality clothes that parents would want to actually wear themselves.
Your SS’14 collection is titled Lost Boys (and girls), tell us about your inspirations and what all led to such a cool shoot.
We actually shot these images super recently as an editorial piece to accompany the collection, so it’s really fresh. All the images we had previously put out were shot in a studio by Jenny Lewis ( http://jennylewis.net ). We love this format for our look books but wanted to take it outside. Lucy worked with Nerys Jones, Crissy Aranda and Road Casting Kids on this – it was a simple but effective way of showing our clothing in its home environment – a British playground. I love the images, you can see the kids are having fun, playing ball and exploring. Lost Boys is a name that we initially were going to call our ‘kids streetwear brand’ but Ruff and Huddle came up and stuck. Also, for some reason, the images made me think of Lord Of The Flies, a book by William Golding that all Brits read.
I immediately thought of Lord of the Flies. Success! Well, the jackets are undoubtedly my favorite. Do you have a piece you cannot get over?
The London MA-1 and London Sports Jackets are our most popular items – I don’t see other kids brands making jackets like these. I also love the long sleeve bones tee – Lucy loved making the camouflage dungarees – just stuff other people don’t do I guess.
And Rufus and Hudson? What has been their favorite go to items?
When we received a sample of the HYPER COLOUR tee shirt and showed Rufus, he was so mystified that it changed colour when you breath on it that he demanded he took it to school and show all his friends!!
We are developing so much new stuff that our kids and their friends are always road testing prototypes – we really care about the functionality of our products so getting them tested before they go to store is really important.
The passion behind your products is so there! I feel the warmth! Speaking of… summer heat here, we are in as few layers as possible right now. Any last advice on staying cool while still looking cool?
Wear sunscreen obviously!! Roll your pants up, rip the sleeves an the neck out of your tee shirt – wear no show socks with your trainers.. Just make sure you have nothing holding you back from having a great time. The rudeboy loopback shorts and colour block tees are a great look for the summer!
Thanks so much James & Lucy for chatting with me! I love getting to know the creative minds that add so much to wardrobes, even in just one piece.
Be sure to keep up with Ruff and Huddle on their blog, where they will be launching a TV series soon (more info to come!) Just for you Babiekins readers, here is an exclusive 15% off discount code: CLUB RH. And the best:
WIN £200 worth of Ruff and Huddle merchandise!
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