To bring a bit of magic to your sitting room this Christmas, Sky has launched limited edition Sky+ HD 2TB Boxes designed by illustrious fashion designers Roland Mouret and Giles Deacon, style icon Sophie Dahl and men’s fashion rising star Kit Neale.
The collection brings to life everybody’s love of TV, with each box inspired by the designer’s favourite genre. The limited edition designs feature on the latest and best ever set top box from Sky, which has built-in Wi-Fi for easier access to TV box sets of the latest and greatest shows via On Demand.
JOE caught up with London-based designer Kit Neale to discuss his own eye-catching Sky design, as well as his favourite crustaceans, football team and we find out exactly when flared jeans are making a comeback.
Never. The answer is that they’re never coming back.
JOE: Hi Kit, how did you get involved with the designer Sky Box project originally?
Kit Neale: I think that Sky knew that I was obsessed with TV and that we’re obsessed with Sky and so they came to us and we discussed our favourite TV programs. I described my love of David Attenborough and how inspired I am by his nature documentaries, so we came up with the idea that it would be great to feed that into the Sky Box design.
JOE: So growing up, watching nature documentaries like Attenborough’s would have been a particular favourite pastime of yours?
KN: Oh yeah. It was my Sunday evening ritual. I think that loads of kids around Ireland and the UK would have been glued to the TV watching those kinds of documentaries. To this day, I still watch them. One of the great things that we’ve got with Sky is to be able to have the On Demand section and we can record on it. My On Demand section is completely filled with documentaries.
JOE: And where did the specific idea of the lobster come from? Were you always a fan of crustaceans? Did crabs or barnacles get a look in at all or were lobsters always the crustaceans for you?
KN: (Laughs) The lobster that we used on the Sky Box is called ‘Rockney Lobster’ – Rockney coming from a Chas and Dave music style and then that fed into our Spring/Summer collection of 2013 . So then we discussed with Sky what we wanted to do with the Sky Box. To me it was such a great idea because it’s such a great image, the lobster is such a great little shape so we just sort of reworked it. Initially the design came from a poster that I saw in Fish and Chips shop in Margate. I took a photograph… actually, I stole it! I begged them could I have it and then we reworked it.
JOE: I suppose it proves that inspiration can come from anywhere – your design is based on a mixture of Fish and Chips shop plus David Attenborough plus Chas and Dave. It’s quite unique…
KN: (Laughs) Totally! I don’t think they’ve been combined before!
JOE: Your own designs are famous for their colourful prints which a lot of men shy away from. I think the brightest top that I own is a very, very, very, very dark green t-shirt. Should men be more bold in what they’re wearing?
KN: Are you a sports fan?
JOE: I am yeah…
KN: So you’re telling me that you’re a sports fan but that the brightest item of clothing you own is very dark green?
JOE: Well the very, very, very, very dark green t-shirt makes my eyes pop so I wear it a lot.
KN: (Laughs) Do you have any sports tops?
JOE: I see, I suppose you’re right, I’ve a got a couple of different red and white ones…
KN: You see! You do have bright red tops. I think that it’s actually a myth that men shy away from bright colours. They shy away from colour in the work place and they shy away from colour in a fashion sense.
However, if you look at sports, the variety of colours that men wear is incredible. For some reason, putting it into that masculine setting of a physical activity or a really hyped up activity like football or Irish Gaelic football, it suddenly becomes acceptable to wear colours like bright reds and bright yellows, even pinks and other colours that are traditionally ‘feminine colours.’
I think, however, it’s changing and men can be more daring now, they don’t have to reserve it for sports or for their Christmas jumper where they just have a joke about it. They can be more adventurous.
We always like to approach what we do with “can you talk about this in a pub?” So if a guy walks into a pub and gets mocked by his mates for wearing an outlandish, bright-coloured shirt, he can say “hang on a second,” and can tell them all about it instead of feeling guilty about it. Men should just brave up to the fact that it is definitely acceptable now.
It’s also fun. We should learn to have fun in the way that we dress, in the same way that we have fun when we do sports or have special occasions whether they’re religious or festive seasons. I think we can really break this barrier.
JOE: And speaking of sports, would you be interested in designing a kit for a football team in the future?
KN: Oh I’d love to design a sports kit. I’m not an active follower of sports in the sense that I’ve a particular club. I did in the past; I was a Wimbledon fan and they’ve really been through the mill. I grew up in South-East London so it was either Millwall, Crystal Palace or Wimbledon and, for me, I was terrified of supporting Millwall. I get into it much more on a national level and I try to get to games as much as I can, but that very rarely happens.
I’d love to design a kit. They’re so technically advanced and I have a weird collection of football shirts, just purely for the detail that goes into it. It’s not just detail on a surface level but it’s actually got a physical activity to it.
It seems like everything around us has got to have a practical level to it as well as a design level. It’s the same as your computer or your Sky Box, these things should have a design that’s aesthetically pleasing as well as have a functionality.
JOE: I’m looking forward to the day that Millwall fans are kitted out in some of your unique lobster designs, opposition fans mightn’t take them quite as seriously if that was the case.
KN: (Laughs) Yeah, I don’t think they’d go down to well in Millwall!
JOE: What can we expect to see in some of your own future collections?
KN: We always reference the UK in our work, British life, London living – not that we couldn’t do the same for Ireland – but what we know best is exploring British culture.
What is British culture today? We’re enriched in a multitude of different cultures. It’s this massive sort of fruit bowl of loads of different cultures that have come together and are living side by side. It’s so unique in that aspect and that’s what feeds into our collection, whether it’s an African or Indian reference, but I don’t see it to be an African or Indian reference – I see it to be British. We always explore that avenue and, with the ‘Rockney Lobster’ design, that was Margate meets Peckham and these places are so far apart – not geographically but in terms of their cultures.
JOE: One final question for you Kit, and this is more of a personal question – when are flares coming back? Because I have about six pairs of beige, corduroy flares lying in my wardrobe and I need to know. Do I throw them out or will they make, what is in my opinion, a long overdue comeback?
KN: (Laughs) Oh, ahmm, I don’t know, I can’t really answer that. I’m not personally a fan but I know that there are other designers that have played with the idea of bringing back the flare. If there’s a place and a time for it then keep it for that and wear it then.
JOE: I suppose that the place and the time is just going to have to be in the privacy of my bedroom, out of sight from the horrified public…
KN: (Laughs) I think you should wear them down to the pub just to see what everyone says…
JOE: What do you mean I “should?” I already do wear them down to the pub and get slagged massively anyway. Thanks for chatting to us today Kit, the best of luck with your Sky Box design and your own future collections.
KN: Cheers, it was a pleasure speaking to you.
The limited edition collection is available now, just in time for Christmas. Customers can purchase a box from: sky.com/designerboxes.
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