Where did Katie Alice get her inspiration for the Highland Fling collection

The Evolution and Inspiration of the Highland Fling Collection

Highland Fling was initially launched as a small collection of mugs, platters, and coasters for winter. The warm color palette with tartan prints and a rather vintage floral design was inspired by a cool trip to a castle in Edinburgh. Katie Alice, together with Creative Tops, decided to create this collection with some lovely gift pieces, such as the heart-shaped polka dot baking tray, thermos, cookie stamps, and pastry forks. As the demand for this collection grew so much, we wanted to continue developing Highland Fling with a different spin, so Katie had to find new inspiration. When she moved to Stamford in November of the following year, it never occurred to her that she would be just a short walk away from Burghley House. Katie had only visited the location once before, but it was so cold that day that all she could truly focus on was how to convince everyone else to forget about that big, extravagant house and go warm up with a hot chocolate.

Stamford is the first town Katie Alice has ever lived in. Being a country girl for all 28 years she had at the time, the large green spaces with impressive oaks and wandering deer immediately lured her there. She was even inspired, eventually, to start running, which was a big surprise to most, even to her, but how could anyone resist such a beautiful route right on their doorstep!

While wandering through the park one day, wearing a hat and carrots in her pockets, she was at one point very close to taking a totally brazen selfie with a very beautiful deer. This was an enlightenment for Katie. And after finding a small but perfect fragment of vintage, hand-painted artwork as inspiration, the deer finally came to join the Highland Fling collection.

Katie still runs through Burghley Park at least once a week - which makes her think she is, in fact, very lucky to be able to do that every time she goes there. In December, her older brother and his family left the scorching heat of Bangkok and came to England to spend Christmas with her, which is one of Katie Alice's favorite Christmas gifts every year. Then, they wrapped her niece Rosie in her winter jacket, making her look like a tiny marshmallow, and went together to feed the deer - a pretty big day for Rosie.

This is how Katie Alice's Highland Fling collection was born. If you want to take a piece of this story with you, see here what Katie Alice created in this collection.

Eclair Shop is the exclusive distributor in Moldova of the British company Creative Tops, which produces all of designer Katie Alice's collections.