Lazy Francis designs beautiful, unique clothing for girls aged 2-15 years old. Each item is elegant, stylish and made with comfort and practically in mind. Made in Europe with the finest fabrics, Lazy Francis is the perfect choice if you are looking for an outfit with the ‘WOW’ factor for your little fashionista.
Check out the Lazy Francis online boutique to view their latest collections and the Summer Sale that has up to 60% off! …….. Perfect if you have a special occasion over the summer to attend.
We sent over a couple of questions to Alina, one of the founders of Lazy Francis. So if you want to find out more about the people behind the brand, continue reading.
Hi Alina, would you mind introducing yourself?
There are 2 of us behind the brand. Olga Kruze, who is our Creative Director and brings to life all of our fabulous designs and Alina Sakhterova, Business Development Director, who is bringing the brand to the online world and stores worldwide. Olga is 33, married and has a two and half year old adorable daughter Anna. I am 27, also married and have the cutest little chihuahua. We both live in London half of the time, but have to travel all over Europe to source the highest quality fabrics and materials as well as meet our business clients and potential
partners in various European and other countries.
Tell us a little about your background? How did you come to be a children’s fashion designer?
We have lived and studied together at university and already then we knew that we wanted to start our own business some day. So after working in quite a different industry for years, when three years ago Olga got pregnant, it was easy to decide that it’s time to make our dream of independence and unrestrained creativity to come true. From early childhood we learned to sew, knit and crochet: Olga from her grandma and me from my grandma. At first Olga wanted to design elegant and at the same time extravagant evening dresses that would fit around her lifestyle, but once Anna was born, decided to create same beautiful lifestyle for her and other kids of busy, stylish mums with a busy family and social life.
What inspires your work, and what do you want to inspire in others though your work?
Firstly, child’s emotions, challenges and individuality. Little girl doesn’t mean – pink, fluffy and sweet. Every little girl is an individual with her own character, mood, taste, style and rhythm of life. We combine the sometimes not typically kiddy elements of patterns in the child’s image, however without stepping over the line, which lets us create elegant and not “fluffy” look, which highlights individuality of every child instead of consuming it with loads of tulle, pink ribbons and bows. The real inspiration is when you see the final result of your work – a little
personality dressed in the outfit you created.
What is your favorite piece from the collection?
Gold faux leather dress with black tulle. Simple and at the same time very difficult to create with 8 meters of tulle stitched by hand and thin leather. It’s quite challenging for everyone: us, mum and a child, but it looks absolutely stunning when a girl puts it on! It is definitely for self confident parents as the girls will love it anyway.
Do you have children? How does that influence your work?
Yes Olga has a two and half year old daughter Anna. Her mum is helping her a lot and looks after Anna. Without her she would have never managed half of what Olga does as very often we work 16-18 hours a day with no days off. Yes, sometimes Olga feels guilty but she wants her daughter to appreciate what she does, to know how hard work is and to see what a job you really enjoy doing is like. No illusions! Weekends are normally our days off – parks, zoo, swimming pools… Olga is all hers… Unless there is something extremely urgent of course.
What are the most rewarding and most challenging aspects of your job?
All above …
Rewarding: Understand that what you do IS beautiful. And different from the majority of the other brands. Seeing girls wanting our dresses. Sometimes not getting them, but anyway J /please see challenging part about education/I am proud that our brand is 100% made in Europe.
Challenging: educating mums and managing people.
Educating mums: for example, pencil dress is for grown ups – really? It looks amazing on 3-4-5 year olds. Cute, sophisticated, serious, individual, like a mum :), stylish– here are the words to describe the shape of it on the little ones. Not always you need full skirt for your daughter to look glamorous and different from everybody else. Individuality is the key word. Individuality for self confident stylish mums and their unique little copies. Black colour is depressive for special occasions. I don’t think so. An elegant, easy to combine with any colour, looking brilliant on children ….Gold? Too flashy? Of course! Because you want your child to stand out from the crowed of white fluffy meters of tulle.
Thanks Alina for taking the time to answer these questions.
AW14 collection coming soon!
