Mulberry Spring Summer 2012 Campaign

What do you associate with spring and summer? What images does your mind conjure up, even if somewhat generic. Is it the re-emergence of pastels following their long winter hibernation stuffed at the back of our closets that never cease to lose their appeal and charm notwithstanding their predictability? Is it the sound of waves thundering against the shore filling your eardrums, the wispy, fine upper layer of sand spilling over the gaps between your toes while the heat of the sun gently toasts the back of your legs? Or is it simply being confined indoors, watching in utter dismay, as the annual monsoon of summer, overly-familiar to Ireland and the UK, pummels to the ground?

Despite this Siberian weather we've been experiencing these past few days, we are now officially inaugurating the spring/summer 2012 season.

SS 2012 campaigns and lookbooks are cropping up all over the place like the blossoming buds of baby daffodils, poking their canary petals out of their green cocoons. The homegrown image of a commonplace English (and Irish) summer's day spent at the seaside indulging in pierside cuisine, flaked out in those deckchairs passed down by your grandparents, is captured in Mulberry's season shoot starring Lindsey Wixon and Frida Gustavsson shot by Tim Walker.

The Amazonian height of the models is overshadowed by the life size monuments of beach delicacies (99 cones in the process of melting under the summer sun, shattered shards of stick-of-rock candy and the very informal container for a meal of fish and chips - newspaper) almost tower over the models. The apt location of Brighton Pier, famous for it's connotations of seaside holidays and it's equally as famous fairground delight boardwalk, provides the backdrop for the shoot.

The clothes themselves are the epitome of the warmer months; not a harsh, bold berry tone in sight! Bright, feminine, fresh was the key with this collection, light textures and and short hemlines to soak up the warmth and sunshine but the precaution of lightweight coats and jackets because you never know when the rain will decide to spew itself all over your picnic.

The colour scheming is so very appropriate - just look at those sunny yellow mackintoshes, with complenting platform sandals and Holiday Bayswater handbags. Is it just me or does the colour palette remind you of ice lollies and ice creams? The soft chocolate browns that reoccur throughout. Especially the striped colour block dress worn by both models - the similarly patterned and coloured ice lollies that you begged your mother to buy you as a child (e.g. Twister and Loop the Loop) immediately sprang to mind. And if you have no clue what I'm referring to, click here for an insight.

During the process of writing this post, I paused often to dwell on the occasional instillation of nostalgia that a mere look at the images gave me; sand in your sandwiches, collecting bucketfuls of pearlescent shells only to be distraught when told you would return home without them as they would, and I'm paraphrasing here, "stink up the car" and lounging for hours on a sandy landscape submersed in a book, pausing every now and again to listen to the buzz of people doing the exact same thing as you or the jingle of the passing ice cream van followed by hoards of people or the gulls squawking overhead.

The power of advertising, eh?