Child's play: Designing for children

Clothes have always been magical to me. One of my first memories is of a red duffle coat that my mother had to buy me – I say "had to" because I refused to take it off. I even wore it to bed and she would come into my room at night and peel it off me while I was asleep. By the time I was eight, I had my own sewing machine and at school, I could often be found staring out of the window dreaming up how to recreate the outfits I'd seen in old films - the long swirling skirts that Ginger Rodgers danced in. Ginger looked so glamorous; I wanted to be glamorous, too, and so I made a skirt like hers.

Perhaps it's no surprise, then, that Angel's Face started with a tutu.

I studied fashion after school and had won lots of competitions: one of my prizes was to be exhibited at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. I also won a bursary to go to Premier Vision Paris, the biggest textile fair in the world. This opened up my eyes so much to the possibilities of what I could become. By my early 20s, after designing and pattern cutting at H&M, Miss Selfridge and Topshop, I was working at Courtaulds, a supplier to Marks & Spencer, and I had only been there a few weeks when I noticed the designer who worked next to me was always rushed - she was flying off to Hong Kong and Singapore every other month. I would stay behind and help her. After I had worked there for nine months, she told me she was leaving and she recommended that they give me her job! I had to apply like everyone else, but the next month it was me who was on the plane to Singapore. At 23 years old, I was officially a designer traveling the world business class and staying in five-star hotels. You see, from the moment I put on that magical duffle coat when I was three, it was destiny. By the time I was 30, I was the design director.

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It was after 18 years of travelling the world designing for other people’s labels - as well as having three kids - that I decided I would start my own label. My first line was called Little Linens, a classic range of 100 per cent linen clothes for boys. But when my daughter Trinity started to insist on dressing herself at the age of three, I started to think about what she would like to wear and Angel's Face was born.

As I said, it started with the tutu - and not just any old tutu. It's a super-soft, high-quality product full of frilly nylon-chiffon layers. I wanted it to be beautifully packaged in a luxurious round striped hat box, so that from the moment a child was given it, their eyes lit up, followed by delight in their face as they realised they could become something - a princess, a fairy, a dancer, whatever they dreamed of in that moment. I considered everything: how the tutu feels when they put it on - no zips or fastenings, I wanted them to be easy - and to fit everyone no matter what their size. Where possible, we avoid complication so the child can dress themselves, which is very important for the young fashionista needing to don a full-on party dress to go to the supermarket.

Also, Angel's Face never forgets the softness in our collections: the fabric has to be soft and there's no compromise, nor on the colour, the pure decadence, the details - that magpie effect that draws the garment to you. It could be a larger-than-needed crystal button (aka diamonds!); it could be sparkly sequin elbow patches, or stand-out-in-a-crowd wings embellished on the back of a T-shirt or cardigan. Or maybe our delightful signature gold wings shaped in a heart that we attach with a bow - whatever it is that I add to each piece, that child will remember it for ever.

Every piece I create has love stitched into it. If I can light the imagination of children creating their very own magic garments, maybe they too will have the magical journey I have had.

KEELY DEININGER is the founder and designer Angel's Face, a luxurious childrenswear line featuring tutus, dresses, separates and accessories. From its beginning on a kitchen table, it is now stocked in more than 300 stores worldwide; the full collection can be found at angels-face.co.uk