What's the story behind the collaboration?

Leith Clark: In lockdown, my love for cashmere intensified. I wanted everything I owned to be cashmere, and I started thinking about what that would look like. Maddy and I talked about it – and so began the cashmere collection of dreams.

How do you approach designing a capsule collection? Do you think about it a lot, or is it fast and instinctive? Do you sketch, draw, write, talk, listen to music when designing?

Both. Ideas are instinctual, but there are so many. And ideas grow out of ideas. So being an editor is definitely important. So is being primal. I sketch (very badly and show no one), I write sentences, words, song lyrics. I create mood boards and write notes on top of the images.

In the end I presented multiple images and text explaining changes [to designs] and things that [weren’t] there for each item. Maddy then sent sample sets to me to try on and make changes to and see colour options, etc. I took pictures in the mirror and sent them to Maddy with notes… it was so much fun. She was very dreamy to collaborate with and was such a partner and pal.

What or who are your forever references? The ideas, people and places that always find a way into your work.

Annie. Forests, flora, fauna. Marianne Faithfull, Gloria Steinem, Anna Karina, the Ingalls women, Jane Birkin, ballet, Marlene Dumas, Jeanne Lanvin, the Seeger Sisters, Jenny Saville, Liv Ullmann, the Vivian Girls, Simone de Beauvoir, Riot Grrrl, Virginia Woolf, Mia Farrow, Victoriana, The Five, The Childlike Empress…

Which piece in the collection is your favourite, and why? I think the Karina dress because my love of sailor details is infinite, and the Elizabeth jumpsuit because it’s perfectttt.

How has your approach to clothing and style evolved over the years?

I would love someone else to answer this for me. I wonder who I should ask.

Pamela Hanson shot the campaign for the collection. Why did you want her behind the lens?

Pamela has been one of my favourites long before we actually met and started working together. Now I’m just completely in love with her and wish I could be with her every day. But creatively, I asked her to do this with me because you feel the feeling, the movement, the texture in her pictures in such a rich way. She makes still images move. You don’t just see—it’s visceral.

Leith x Madeleine Thompson is available at madeleinethompson.com.