Focus on rising talent Lucy Kemp of Pardon My French

Lucy Kemp has a newly-launched label called Pardon My French. Photo / Babiche Martens

After working with two established fashion names, Lucy Kemp is going out on her own with a new label.

The début collection from Pardon My French won't arrive in stores for three months, but we are so excited by this new label, we're telling you about it now.

Established by designer Lucy Kemp just this May, it has a simplistic, feminine aesthetic that will appeal to many - cute, wearable and high-quality clothes with a subtly quirky finish.

Kemp certainly has the pedigree and background that should lend itself to success: after graduating from Wanganui Design School in 2002, she worked as fashion designer Adrian Hailwood's pattern-cutter for two years, before moving to Karen Walker to work as a sample room manager for two and a half years. Both roles helped her on the path to establishing Pardon My French.

"Adrian was a designer I had always admired and hoped to work for when I was a student, so to get a job working for him was very exciting.

"I learned so much at Hailwood about how the industry works and how a small workroom operates. I also learned a lot about myself, which has contributed to me having the confidence to do what I'm doing now. He always believed in me and remains a good friend."

Moving to Karen Walker was a big change, with Kemp managing a much larger workroom. "I became very good with time-management and communication skills. I learned the importance of quality, and many tricks of the trade that you just don't learn at design school."

All are skills that will help her in the long term, because, as her former employer Karen Walker explains, fashion is a hard industry.

"This is a tough business and requires commitment, dedication and attention to detail. Lucy's got all that and more and we're excited that she's taking on this great adventure."

Kemp's first full Pardon My French collection, called Young American, is a small but tight range of preppy lace polo shirts, feminine dresses and a coat with a subtle 60s feel, and French-style merino jersey stripes. She describes it as a focus on a "wardrobe of modern classics", a sort of taster of what the label is about. Sportswear is a big influence for this collection, with Kemp planning to produce the polos each season, hopefully turning them into the label's signature.

"Young American was inspired by classic sportswear pieces - the baseball jacket, running shorts, polo shirts - and my idea or impression of what it's like to be a teenager in America," she explains. (Garments have Americana-inspired names like the "Homecoming", "Prom Queen" and "Supersize Me" dresses.)

"I also had Margot Tenenbaum [from the film The Royal Tenenbaums] in mind as a bit of a muse."

Kemp has just started work on her next range, for summer 2012. What to expect next from this promising label?

"I don't want to give too much away at this stage, but I would say Italy is a keyword," she says. Pardon our French, but we can't bloody wait.

* Pardon My French is available at Hailwood (Auckland), Guilty as Sin (Napier and Palmerston North), and Dead Set (Christchurch).