CaravanTimes caught up with the creative twosome, Harriet Creedy and Jodie Gardner, and received some insider information about their latest creative venture, the Muddy Puddles festival retail caravan
Designers Hattie and Flora are back once again and this time round they’ve collaborated with children’s outdoor clothing company, Muddy Puddles, to create a mobile pop-up shop that they will be taking around to festivals.
The first time CaravanTimes came across Hattie and Flora was in March where the creative geniuses had renovated and styled an old, neglected caravan into a pride-worthy library-caravan .
The modern day fairy godmothers have been busy spreading their creative talents across various high profile events, including an event at The Royal Air Force Museum and a private Jamie Oliver party in Soho, London.
We were, therefore, delighted to hear that Hattie and Flora’s Harriet Creedy and Jodie Gardner had a few minutes to spare from their very busy schedule to talk about their brand new retail caravan.
Hattie and Flora were busy making large hessian carrots when we contacted them; we soon found out that the girls were preparing their creative bit and bobs, ready for Jamie Oliver’s live-broadcast International Food Day that is set to take place on 16 May.
Considering that Harriet and Jodie are from backgrounds in floristry and event design, the grey-shaded caravan came as somewhat of a surprise, being so used to seeing the girls projects emblazoned in colour.
The origins of the collaboration with children’s outwear company,Muddy Puddles came about last year when an ambassador for the online retail store spotted H&J’s bright teal creative caravan, ‘Junior’, at the Verulamium Fete in July.
And so forth the idea of a creative retail caravan was born. The duo teamed up with the design and branding team of Muddy Puddles to discuss the requirements of the caravan; the vehicle had to encompass enough room to accommodate all Muddy Puddles’ retail products required to be shown and they had to ensure the retailer’s logo was prominent. There was also the task of coming up with the theme for the caravan.
Harriet told CaravanTimes the reason behind the choice of dark grey as the main shade of the van was due to the clothes of Muddy Puddles being as vibrant as they are cute and because of the fact the retail van will be taken to festivals throughout summer – the colourful clothes and bright weather will contrast nicely against the caravan.
This meant the girls had to tone down their signature colourful design ethos, as the caravan needed to fit in with the practicality of a retail caravan. Although there are still some elements of playfulness, the caravan had to make sure it was able to appeal to adults as well as children.
The above said, touches of the creative geniuses signature design hasn’t gone unnoticed, as the interior of the caravan includes rain cloud coat hangers and a fun slogan on the side of the exterior proclaiming: “Here comes the fun”.
Jodie also let us in on the extra features the girls added to the caravan, making it somewhat of an interactive experience by adding colourful deckchairs and a frog throwing game.
Hattie and Flora are known to encourage creative learning with children. Their website states that Hattie and Flora believe ‘dynamic and interactive learning is key to success and just changing your surroundings can really inspire learning and creativity.’ We couldn’t help but agree.
The caravan that the girls used was a 70s style Thomson Mini Glen vintage caravan and they revealed that Muddy Puddles are looking to attend festivals including Jamie Oliver’s Big Festival – the same festival that Hattie and Flora style for.
The official Muddy Puddles website has also undergone a recent revamp and if you look closely, you’ll be able to identify a snippet of the retail caravan shown on the site.
For more pictures of Hattie and Flora’s delightful retro retail caravan, scroll through the sideshow below:
