Are Fair Trade and organic clothing something you have been interested in for a while?
Emma: I first started learning about Fair Trade fashion simply because I did a piece of geography course work on it. I thought why isn’t everything Fair Trade? From that point I started to look for labels that were Fair Trade and started researching it. When I thought of Fair Trade I thought of bananas and coffee and I thought this was as far as it went. But, of course pretty much anything can be Fair Trade. My collection is very much based on cotton and jersey which all can be made Fair Trade and organic. It’s so great to work with something that hasn’t been made with chemicals and is helping someone abroad who isn’t earning a lot of money.

You’ve taken the role of creative consultant with this range, why did you opt for that rather than ‘designer’?
Emma: I have been very heavily involved in the design side, but I don’t want to take credit for being a designer as I haven’t trained as a designer, I haven’t been to art college and I didn’t want this collection to be about me, and this is not an Emma Watson clothing line. This is not a celebrity endorsement, this is something I thought was a really great idea and I wanted to help with. I just thought fashion was a great way to help people.

Did u have an overall vision for the range?
Emma: I went through my wardrobe and thought that if I filtered out my clothes and took it down to the absolute basics, what would I want in my wardrobe? It was cotton vests, really easy t-shirt dresses, nice scarves and maybe an easy summer linen shirt. And with the boys it’s just the basics such as a comfortable hoody. I’ve done a couple of art designs for t-shirts too including, ‘I’m not toxic’ for the boys and for the girls I’ve done, ‘please don’t panic I’m organic’. I was aware that I didn’t want to preach, you don’t want to be too serious or too heavy. I also came up with a daisy chain print which I’m proud of, it’s fun and messy. I just wanted t o make something wearable and cool and easy.

You have spent a long time working with Safia (founder of People Tree) and been heavily involved in the creation of this range, you are definitely not just a name, and can you tell me more about what this involvement entailed?
Emma: It was a really long process putting all this together. I had no idea all the work involved. You really have to start at the basics. Safia and I had an initial meeting and we went through and chose the fabrics we wanted to use. Then choosing the styles took a long time. Again a lot of inspiration came from my wardrobe and friends’ wardrobes and I added my own style to it. Then going through the pantone books and choosing colours, but this don’t necessarily look the same once you’ve dyed something. You learn these things as you go along. It’s massively time consuming. We did a first set of samples and some looked good and some needed altering a lot.

You are also very much involved in this catalogues shoot in fact you are driving force behind it in every sense – has this been an exciting process?
Emma: It’s been really nice to be on the other side of the camera for once. I’ve really enjoyed the styling, planning where we were going to have the shoot, choosing the models, hair and make-up.

You also contacted friends and models who are friends how did you go about choosing these people and persuading them to take part?
Emma: Everyone here on the shoot is working for free so I’ve had to call in a lot of favours from friends. The models are nearly all my friends, all the crew are my friends, all very talented hard working people who are helping out. Everyone was really excited to come and help and so I was really lucky in that sense.

Could you talk about your thoughts for the direction of the shoot and your artistic vision?
Emma: I chose the location as it had so much within it. There is an orchard, there is a place to have a tea party, there’s a swing, beautiful scenery, a lake, plants and flowers everything really even a vegetable garden. It is the perfect idyllic British summer house which is what I wanted. I wanted it to be outside and fresh and not too contrived. And the clothes are very British. It’s very strawberries and cream and tennis.