M.Hulot Style Share: Kelly Love

‘Style Share’ is a continuation of our ‘Tell Your Friends’ series but with this time with a focus on creative individuals and their collection of M.Hulot pieces.

Kelly Love started her clothing label at a similar time to M.Hulot; our paths crossed through family friends but also through the wonderful Young British Designers who have loyally stocked our collections from the start. Kelly’s clothes stand out as unashamedly feminine. In world obsessed with workwear and unisex styling, the collection bucks the trend; heavy draped silks jostle with contemporary florals and delicate chiffons all in a muted and considered palette. Buyers around the world have fallen in love with Kelly’s romantic vision and the label is now stocked internationally across Europe and as far afield as the US and Japan. 

We shot Kelly at her victorian conversion in Blackheath, London.

Photography by Jon Aaron Green.

Can you tell us a little bit about ‘Kelly Love’ , how you started and where you’re headed? 

Of course! I knew that I wanted to do something creative but originally thought I would write. It wasn’t until I moved to Japan for a couple of years and worked for a fashion designer that I could see myself starting a label. Osaka is an incredibly creative place and something about it made me feel really free and sure of myself, so when I fell into my job with the designer, it became really clear that it was what I wanted to do. I then moved back to Sydney to study fashion design before moving to London to start my label. 

At the beginning of each season, I write a short story that’s in line with what’s inspired me. This helps me to imagine the finished products and is something I keep going back to as I’m designing. I’m really inspired by nature as you’ll see from my prints and have always loved antique furniture and vintage clothes so there’s a hint of that to my designs. I love simplicity though so am careful to strike a balance between a feminine and contemporary style. 

KELLY LOVE is predominately a silk label and we specialise in a heavy weight silk satin that is quite unique within the industry. When I first finished studying, I worked for a couture house and fell in love with the materials we used which really inspired my label. I did a lot of research and worked with our mill tirelessly to get the weight and texture right. I also work on exclusive prints that are digitally printed onto silks and I work with small mills in France and Italy to develop embroidered cottons, French laces and linens. 

Your Instagram feed is incredibly beautiful, you can really get a feel for your passions inside and outside of your business. Can you tell us a little about this and how it’s curated? 

Thank you so much – I’m so glad you love it! My label focuses on a specific colour palette of black, white and pink along with a few other key colours. As I also gravitate towards these colours in everyday life, my Instagram palette has been created quite naturally.  

I feature my home often as it’s also where I work. I love interiors and actually own an interiors business that I started when my boyfriend and I renovated our home. It was definitely not something I intended to do and came about quite organically. I source antique rugs mainly for interior designers within the US and this has grown so unexpectedly over the last two years. It’s been an adjustment to run two businesses but they’re both really different while complimenting each other perfectly. I find rugs so inspiring as they’re all hand made and one-of-a-kind so are essentially pieces of art. The rugs can be found on my Instagram @broomhill_antique_rugs  

I also cook and bake most days which can sometimes pop up on my feed and stories. I love cooking and would probably do something with this if I didn’t work in fashion and interiors. It’s my way of relaxing and I also see it as another form of creativity and inspiration. I started baking sourdough a couple of years ago and make it most weeks which is so therapeutic. 

You work from your beautifully renovated home. How does this suit you and what does an average day looks like? 

I absolutely love working from home – it suits me perfectly. All of our garments are made within workshops, our sales agents & accounts team work externally, and we don’t hold stock as we’re a zero waste label. So, having a separate studio has never really made sense to us.  

No day is the same which I love - having complete freedom each day is one of the best parts of my job. I adore travelling and the way that I’ve set my businesses up allows me to do this really often. As to what my day looks like, it really depends on the time of year. I could be designing collections, organising the production for our stockists, sales meetings with our direct stockists, working out costings, shipping online orders, sourcing and shooting rugs, organising freelancers if we have any in, meeting with stylists and influences or catching up on emails. 

I often like to break my days up by meeting friends, doing a Pilates class or popping to the local café for a change of scenery. 

A few seasons ago I also started heading away from home for a week or two to rent a little cottage by the sea where I design the bulk of my collections. As I work on so many different areas, it can be tricky to switch off from everything. It’s such a wonderful thing to do and really feels like I’m living the dream when I’m there! Days filled with nothing but sketching, painting and listening to music.

Our aesthetics are very different, but we have a mutual appreciation of each others work. Your garments have even been included in past M.Hulot Look Books! What about M.Hulot appeals to you?

I love the simplicity of M.Hulot and the focus on luxe materials combined with clean lines. They feel very classic yet cool and go with any outfit. I also think the earthy colours that the leathers are dyed to are really beautiful. 

We are both material obsessives. How do you make M.Hulot leathers work with your delicate fabrics and what do you love about them together?

I’ve always loved the contrast of different textures and my label is very focused on this. Fluid silks combined with more study leather jackets or heavy handknits is so dreamy and gives a different dynamic to a full silk outfit. M.Hulot works in the same way. Those textured and smooth leathers with our lightweight silks and cottons is a lovely contrast. 

M.Hulot and KELLY LOVE also both feature classic black alongside more earthy or soft palettes so they work perfectly together I think!