Victoriana and recycling inspire cutting-edge fashion designers Preen, and they’ve used this to great effect to create an eye-catching new cover for The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, in the Beatrix Potter British Fashion Designer Collection, created to mark the 150th anniversary of the author’s birth. Nutkin prances on the cover against a montage of wild flowers arranged on a black background. It throws Nutkin into focus and makes us look again at the familiar figure, somehow adding an edgy contemporary feeling to this old favourite. Super-stylish this is very pick-up-able and would make a lovely gift. ~ Andrea Reece
In celebration of Beatrix Potter’s 150th anniversary, Penguin Random House have commissioned five of Britain and Ireland’s most exciting fashion designers to reimagine the cover designs of Potter’s best-loved tales. Visually stunning and completely unexpected, we hope you enjoy seeing Potter’s characters through this new lens. – Jo Hanks, Publisher
Beatrix Potter had an eye for fashion as well as the natural world, clothing her characters in à la mode jackets, hats, shawls and dresses with Peter Rabbit being inseparable from his iconic blue jacket. It has been a privilege working with modern British and Irish fashion designers, each creating surprising and wonderful designs inspired by Beatrix Potter’s classic tales adding their own distinctive style into the mix. – Adam Wardle, Designer
Beatrix Potter's famous tale of a naughty squirrel who loses his tail is as popular today as it was when it was first published over 100 years ago. Join Nutkin, his brother Twinkleberry and all his cousins as they make their way over to Owl Island to gather nuts. See what happens when Old Brown, the terrifying owl guardian of the island decides he has had enough of silly Nutkin's cheekiness! Ouch!!
This edition is part of a collection of five books designed by iconic British and Irish fashion designers to celebration the 150th anniversary of Beatrix Potter.
The cover of The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin was designed by Preen; founded in 1996 by Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi, with a joint love of all things Victoriana, a passion for recycling, and with that masculine and feminine, hard/soft mix the couple bring to their designs. Their debut collection at London Fashion Week for Spring/Summer 2001 received rave reviews, described as a sartorial traditional clash, with a very British sense of tongue-in-cheek chic.
Preen designs are worn by high profile women including Diane Kruger, Scarlett Johansson, Cate Blanchett, Carey Mulligan, Beyoncé, Rhianna and Michelle Obama.
Beatrix Potter was born in London in 1866. During her rather lonely childhood and later, as a young woman, she studied art and natural history. She acquired her love and knowledge of the countryside during family holidays, at first in Scotland and then in the Lake District. She started her career as children's author and illustrator in 1901 when she was thirty-five. In the years before the First World War, demand for her work was so great that she was publishing an average of two new stories a year. As she became financially independent, she was able to buy some land in the Lake District and in 1913, on her marriage to solicitor William Heelis, she moved to live there permanently. For the last thirty years of her life, writing and illustrating gave place to a second career as a sheep farmer and countryside conservationist.
Her little books never lost their popularity however and today they sell in their millions, translated into numerous languages, and the pleasures of those timeless tales continue to be enjoyed by children all over the world.
