On the eve of London Fashion Week, Emma Willis hosted a BBC Children in Need vogue present showcasing a T-shirt she designed herself with George at Asda.
The T-shirt appears to be like nothing like the secure, spotty Pudsey adorning tops of earlier years. Willis’s model borrows from Nineties grunge and slightly Vivienne Westwood revolt, recasting the mascot with a punk edge.
“I’m a huge fan of Vivienne Westwood, and I’m a huge fan of tartan. I’m a huge fan of the Nineties and grunge,” she instructed PA Media earlier than the present. “[So I thought] what if we touch on Pudsey having the punk aesthetic?”
She admits she walked into the first assembly nervous about her pitch: “When I went for the meeting, I was bit scared. I was like, what they’re going to say? They’re going to say no. Then I went in, and one of the designers said oh my goodness, I had exactly the same idea.”
The T-shirt unveiled at the present retains Pudsey recognisable however provides a cool contact you don’t often affiliate with a charity tee. “Pudsey is Pudsey, right? And we have to keep him as him,” says Willis, “you want it to be that something that people like, so that they buy it, and then that way we raise as much money as we can.”
Modelling alongside her on the runway have been Aness, eight, and Louis, 13, two younger individuals who have benefited from Children in Need funding.
Around the catwalk, a roll-call of British celebrities confirmed up to help the launch, together with Professor Green, Emma Barton and Jim Chapman, who have been in the viewers.
On social media, Emma Bunton, GK Barry, Danny Beard, Frankie Bridge, Vernon Kay, Paddy McGuinness, Kimberley Walsh and Joe Wicks MBE are amongst the celebrities have all posed in Willis’s shirt for the marketing campaign.
This yr’s marketing campaign theme is “Challenge Yourself”, and for Willis the scariest half was not sketching a punk bear however promoting it. “The challenging bits were, I suppose, walking into the room and telling them your idea and hoping that they’re not going to say that’s rubbish, like, please!”
But she didn’t have a plan B, “I just thought, instead of having a back-up, we’d pivot in some way. I don’t know how, but [we’d] pivot.”
Luckily, nevertheless, she didn’t want one. Willis’s design nods to her personal teenage wardrobe as a lot as to Westwood.
“I’ve always looked at [singer] Gwen Stefani and wished I was as brave as her […] she’s like my icon,” she admitted. “When I think back to that era, I wasn’t really brave enough. I don’t think I dressed how I really wanted to dress. But as I’ve got older, I’ve just realised, just wear what you want, express yourself in whichever way you like.”
But Willis had her punk moments. “I went in and bought a pair of tartan trousers, randomly, and a pair of skin-tight metallic silver trousers, and they were obviously really low slung, and this clear plastic belt – oh, I was adventurous back then,” she laughs.
“I remember my dad saying ‘Have you got tin foil on your legs?’ I’m like, no, they’re trousers from London. Forget it. But I wish I’d kept them.”
Some of the marketing campaign’s celeb supporters have already styled the shirt with metallic trousers for their promo photographs, a coincidence Willis wasn’t really conscious of, “Oh my goodness, I hadn’t even thought of that. I feel like it’s all tying in – because it was in World’s End [Chelsea, London] where I bought those metallic trousers, Vivienne Westwood’s shop was.”
While it’s been sported by lots of well-known faces, one couple Willis has her eye on in explicit is “Victoria Beckham – and David, they’d be great, right?
“Get it in the post to the Beckhams, the ultimate style icons, and a pretty great fashion designer, too.”
Proceeds from the £10 grownup and £5 baby shirts go to BBC Children in Need and Asda’s Fuelling Potential programme, tackling meals insecurity and supporting kids to thrive.
“I wanted the design to reflect the strength, resilience and positivity of the children it supports,” mentioned Willis.
“Every challenge, big or small, is a way to show we care.”