Clothkits relaunched

Anyone growing up in the Seventies in England will remember Clothkits. Perfectly suited to that decade's mania for a homespun life, the company provided clothes patterns with a difference, ready-printed on flat pieces of material. The buyer simply had to cut around the simple shapes and sew them together.

Now it seems that Clothkits is to be relaunched. It's an interesting project which could benefit greatly from its timing: my generation are now nostalgic parents.

My first question - whether the designs will replicate the Clothkits style - appears to be answered by the image you see here. It must have been a difficult task to keep the trademark look, which was very much of its time, but still to make the clothes desirable in the modern age. They have risen to the challenge by employing a range of designers, including my favourite (and local to my hometown of Brighton), Jane Foster. There is even an ongoing competition to design your own dress.

A second nagging query is whether, in the face of cheap shops on every high street, parents will still have the time or the inclination to put these clothes together themselves. In the Seventies, you'd choose Clothkits, presumably, because they were cheaper than buying ready-made clothes, and simpler than following a complex pattern. Now that so few of us have needlework skills, they have only their beautiful designs to act as an incentive. That query also seems to have been taken care of - there is the option to buy the clothes made up as well as in kit form.

I certainly wish them luck. My love for Jane Foster's birds and flowers, as well as the astonishing palette they've chosen, might even see me attempting a pattern myself. And I'm also hoping that they'll keep up with the old Clothkits bonus of a miniature version of each outfit, just right for a dolly, included in every kit, because that's the kind of touch that made the original Clothkits so memorable for me (and not only me, it seems. An entertaining part of the new site is a photo gallery of archive designs).