“Style is how we remember the beauty of being alive … in the moment, the color, the detail.”
As women of a certain age, we’ve learned to appreciate the rhythm of life, the unhurried mornings, the aroma of coffee, the comfort of clothes that feel like us. There’s a calm assurance that comes with time; a knowing that style isn’t something we chase, it’s something we live.
We notice the smaller things, the way light dances through leaves on a morning walk, the hum of conversation at a café, the laughter of friends that lingers long after they’ve gone. These are the moments that make up our lives, the ones we hold quietly, like secret treasures.
It’s this appreciation for life’s simple beauty that sits at the heart of COCOOVE & Verdant Line designs, created not to capture youth, but to express presence. Every piece begins with observation, a moment noticed and remembered, reimagined through fabric, print, and form.
Where Inspiration Lives
For me, inspiration rarely strikes in the studio. It appears when I’m out walking…when I’m not searching for it. A flicker of a cityscape from an elevated location, a splash of terracotta against the sea, the rhythm of footsteps on a cobbled path. I’ll take a quick photo so the feeling doesn’t fade. Later, that image becomes a memory translated into a graphic, a colour palette, a print that carries the echo of that moment.
Designing, for me, is an act of remembering of giving shape to emotion. It’s not just about pattern, it’s about the life behind it. The breeze from an open window on a summer morning might become a soft drape of fabric; the intricate tiles of a Mediterranean street might reappear as a print in muted blues and golds. Every collection begins with these glimpses of life.
The Original Icon
People often ask what first inspired my love of fashion. I could say my grandmother…and it’s true, but not in the way many designers mean it. She (Mary H) wasn’t the type to talk about style; she simply lived it.
There was an ease to the way she dressed, an elegance born from intention. A scarf casually tied, a coat worn for years but always immaculate, a hint of lipstick before stepping out. She understood what suited her and never sought approval for it.
Looking back, I see her in the same light as the women who inspire me now. Not because she looked like them, but because she embodied that same quiet confidence, that presence that doesn’t need to announce itself. She, too, belonged among those iconic women who express who they are with grace, depth, and authenticity.
That same spirit runs through CVL. It’s more than perfection → it’s presence. Every detail matters, but what makes a piece truly beautiful is the feeling it carries. We aim to create clothes that become part of a woman’s life story, pieces that move with her through each moment with ease, confidence, and individuality
“True style isn’t taught or copied it’s remembered. It’s the quiet thread that connects who we were, who we are, and who we’re still becoming.”
Style in Our Own Time
There comes a point when we stop dressing to impress and start dressing to express. We choose pieces that feel right, not just look right. A soft sweater that comforts, a silk blouse that moves with us, a dress that recalls the memory of a place or season.
Sometimes it’s the simplest thing slipping into a jacket and remembering the afternoon you wore it for the first time: the sunlight, the laughter, the ease of that day. Or finding an old photo where you’re wearing it, and feeling that same quiet joy rise again. That’s the beauty of clothes that hold memory; they remind us not just of how we looked, but how we felt.
As we move through life, these choices become more personal. We begin to see our wardrobes not as collections of clothes, but as stories, each piece marking a moment we lived, loved, or discovered something new about ourselves.
That, I believe, is the true joy of fashion at any stage of life: it becomes a reflection of both how we feel and how we appear. One naturally amplifies the other when we feel good, it shows. Style becomes not just an outward expression, but an inward glow.
This understanding shapes every CVL garment. Created not only to flatter, but to resonate. To evoke that familiar spark of joy each time you wear them, like greeting an old friend who knows you completely.
When Memory Becomes Art
“Every design begins as a moment worth keeping and ends as a garment that lets you live it again.”
One of my favorite ways to play with style is to use simplicity as a backdrop for expression. A black sweater and slim trouser are timeless, understated, and become the perfect canvas for something more emotive.
The layer that changes everything: a satin jacket whose print was born from a moment I couldn’t let fade, a visit to a summer exhibition, or a walk through sunlit Mediterranean streets where the air was laced with coffee and sea salt.
When you slip that jacket on, you’re not only wearing a design; you’re stepping into a story. The garment holds a mood, a captured fragment of time that resonates differently with each woman who wears it. It’s not nostalgia. Its presence is a reminder of the beauty that still surrounds us, waiting to be noticed.
Simply put, this is what I mean when I say clothes to live in, not just wear. Each piece begins with a moment worth remembering, translated through “my lens” into something that lives again with you.
A Shared Journey
At COCOOVE & Verdant Line, that’s what I want our pieces to capture, not trends or fleeting ideas, but life itself. The moments we collect and carry forward. The sense of being present, grounded, and quietly confident.
This next chapter of CVL will continue that story, clothing as a reflection of the life we live now: expressive, evolving, beautifully our own.
Because style, at its heart, is about connection to ourselves, to memory, to the world around us.
Wishing you the best day everyday,
Ria x
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