After the mildest spring since records began in Britain, it appears an icy blast is on its way, which is thoroughly depressing as we’re near a bank holiday.

But it has also reminded me that our promised balmy summer can only be a few weeks away. I love summer, along with hoards of other desperate-for-sun Brits, I traipse off to the nearest beach, 3 excited kids in tow and even if there is still a Northerly gale blowing, I brave the sand, eat ham sandwiches and drink tea from a thermos flask. Oh ok, who am I kidding?  I drink wine from a chilled bottle in one of those plastic wine glasses, but still, you get my point. I just love summer even when it rains, I love the burnt sausage smells from the BBQ, I love wearing flip flops even when it’s freezing and I mostly love booking our yearly family holiday… in the proper sun!

If like me, you’re already planning what to pack for the annual family get-away, you’ll already be looking at the kids clothes; your clothes, sunglasses (the ones with UV protection), sun creams (in all their confusing varieties) and beach bags.

The high street is already beginning to fill their window displays with gorgeous outfits for children and teens, but that’s where I have a problem. Why is everything always the same? Even well known online and catalogue retailers are beginning to look the same. They did last year as well. I know this because last year Splash About began to design our own range of summer clothes for children to compliment and work along side our specialist baby swimwear.

For me and for all the team it was important that our designer clothing would stand out in a crowd, would be non-iron, and would keep children safe in the sun as well as being robust enough to last all summer, or at least until they grew out of them!

We wanted our designs to be bold, bright and beautiful. We wanted to capture memories of perfect summers, with hot sunny beaches, cold ice creams, new exciting wildlife and sea life. We wanted to capture the spirit of childhood and the joy of wriggling toes in surf. We definitely didn’t want to be boring and we certainly didn’t want to be lost in a crowd. On top of all that, our clothing had to be of the highest quality and should be able to mix and match with baby swim and UV wear.

It was a tough ask but we believe our fabulous team have commissioned and selected the perfect ranges, from some wonderful designers for our launch into children’s designer Holiday wear 2015.

Inspired by Birds of Paradise is our L’Histoire de Birdy collection is designed for little girls who love to laugh and keep people smiling. Bright and bold this exotic range including costumes, bikinis, sundresses, hats and sun protection tops will ensure no one puts your baby in a corner!

Kayla La is our range full of Eastern promise. Spiritual and graceful this capsule collection of costumes, bikinis, hats and sun protection tops is perfect for laid back little girls. Relax in style with Kayla La.

Wonderful Watery Lion Fish is ahead of the trend, dress your boy in the latest fashion trends of sea creatures. In bold orange and cool turquoise this range of sun protection tops, trunks, shorts and hats will look good whatever the summer occasion (and weather!).

Our designer holiday shop products are available now and will appear in select high street stores later in the summer. We would love and value your feedback and thoughts, so please get in touch with us at [email protected] with suggestions, comments and ideas. We’re already starting to plan for a bigger range next year, so we want to know what you think.

Keep your eyes open for our fantastic designer Holiday Shop launch competitions on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Keep a lookout in your deliveries from us as well, we have added some vouchers and discount codes to really get summer off to a good start.

So, I’m back to planning for our annual holiday. Its sunglasses next, last year was the 3rd year in a row where I sat on mine and broke them. This year I’m looking for the unbreakable! Hmm……….now that’s a thought for the Splash Team...