The Collection

“The industrial, steely strength of the Kelpies horses come alive within their towering, angular NYC surrounds. I love the city’s intense juxtapositions, contrasting layers and rich architectural diversity.

The city’s creativity, like beautiful silk contrasted against a backdrop of hard-core metal, dynamically enhances the inspiration behind the collection.”

Iona Crawford, April 2014

Inspired by exceptional Scottish Sculptor Andy Scott and his magnificent Kelpies, the Iona Crawford Beauty and The Beasts Capsule Collection concept was first conceived in the mind’s eye of the designer over a mug of tea with the sculptor himself, in his cool, steely, hanger-like warehouse studio in Glasgow. Surrounded in the dark expanse by towering steel built horses, cold hard concrete beneath their elegantly crafted equine libs, Iona was left with no doubt as to the collection she had to sculpt in their honour.

From the Collection: Hanneke Dress, visionary bespoke madras lace gown featuring tonal black on silver Kelpies inspired design. Lace produced by Scottish lace weavers MYB Textiles

The rich contrast yet subtle parallels between these great beasts and an intricately tailored feminine garment is inexcusably intriguing. Delving further into the concept of the Kelpies, a title inherited from their inception eight years ago, and to the sculptor’s personal legacy as the son and grandson of working heavy horsemen in central Scotland, Iona became further engrossed, surrounding herself by Clydesdales, Shires and Percherons, the equus magnus of the European north. The towering horse heads with their industrial aesthetic, structural columns and beams visible through the riveted laser cut steel plates of the skin, the manes rendered as geometric overlapping slabs of steel; a veritable ocean of equine inspiration collided to create the framework for the Beauty and the Beasts Capsule Collection.

From the Collection: Acanthium Dress; light weight keyhole back wool delaine dress featuring large scale monochrome Silk Sequence Series inspired print.

By Andy’s interpretation, the mythology associated with the Kelpies has been absorbed by personal sources of inspiration in the creative processes, forging the ancient ethereal water spirits into engineered monuments. With silk as her steal, intricate stitched detailing and immaculate french seams as her rivets and solder, Iona’s tactile print and tonal cloth form feminine structures of engineering by delicate contrast. References to saddlery through cut and structure dictate silhouette whilst bespoke damask lace, featuring a figurative representation of the Kelpies in large scale, pays reference the metallic geometry of the sculptures themselves.