Studio Tours : Fatties

London's fit to burst with street food start ups, burger shacks and pulled pork pop ups ! But one girl in town is stretching our imagination with some of the sweetest branding we've ever seen. We visited Chloe Timms in Fatties kitchen to learn first hand why its time confectionery got contemporary. Keep an eye out for some sneaky Winter 14 styles coming next week...

You’re no fatty! Why the name? At first I was like can we get away with this? But it’s not an offensive word, its plural, I’m calling all of us fatties, I’m not the lonely fatty! But my products are never ever going to be diet food. They’re not good for you, except that they make you happy, and I think there should be a certain amount of honesty. The branding isn’t overly chubby lettering, we’re contemporary. It’s the same with Lazy Oaf, there’s a whole attitude connected. How did Fatties begin? In my parents kitchen actually! I was in a really boring relationship with my boyfriend so I started baking, and wrote a little blog for about a year and half, but it soon took over my life. When we broke up it finally clicked that I should be doing something that actually makes me happy everyday, not what I’ve been told I should do to be “successful”. I started making Christmas treats for a friends stall in Spitalfields Market, but I had no brand developed. So I took on this bakery and worked on lots of weird concoctions, like brownies for people who don't like brownies. So how did the focus shift from baking to sweets? I’ve just always had an insanely sweet tooth, I don’t understand people that don’t eat sweets, its dumb. I mean, cinema trips are for the pic 'n' mix, the film comes second! There’s no one pioneering gourmet caramels here in the UK, yet it’s such a big thing in France and America. I think people love the nostalgia and fun element. What are your signature creations? Well I make British salted caramels, but they’re getting a bit too salty, everyone’s like can you reign it back a bit! I guess I’ve built up an immunity trying so many samples. The other day I literally melted down 450g of hand-smoked butter. I’ve had caramels from high-end supermarkets before, but you can just taste all the glucose syrup, whilst Fatties’ caramels literally ooze butter, that’s all the goodness! Butter is basically my crack. I also make tequila & rhubarb lollipops, but unfortunately they’re not boozy ‘cos the alcohol burns off, that’s a bummer. But mainly I make sherbets of all different flavours like lemon meringue & strawberry, cream soda & popping candy, and passion fruit & pineapple. I never use an oven. Can you describe your workspace? So we’re on Broadway Market Mews, just tucked up next to the canal, which is very nice for man watching and ducks. That’s probably the main reason I’m here. I rent kitchen space off the Meringue Girls, I found out through the local paper "The Dalstonist", my friend emailed me and said if I didn’t contact them we couldn’t be friends. What would you say differentiates Fatties from your standard sweets? Everything’s made in little batches by hand, I’m a total control freak, so I get to oversee everything that leaves this kitchen. There’s a real care that goes with artisan food, the produce that’s used is so much higher because were not trying to meet massive targets, and im still excited by it too! Its fair to say you’re a foodie but what did you do previously? So I did illustration at Camberwell, but i was already good at drawing so I ended up needle felting lots of cats, and making snails out of pegs, standard art school. Somehow obsessing over 70’s crafts got me a first! Then I moved up to London fields, went a bit mad for 6 months, and ended up as a trend forecaster. Do you feel like colour forecasting has crept into how you design your sweets? The two cross over so much, over the seasons our trend books more and more reflected how food influenced fashion, from colours to textures, there’s so many Tumblrs these days filled with shrines to it. I thought I had a natural flair and understood colour, but when you actually spend your life matching them up you realise one black is not the same as another black. So yeah, it has actually transferred into my kitchen skills, checking that one batch matches another, its like quality control. What is your favourite colour combo? It might sound lame, but I love grey and anything pastel, and it’s not really a combination, but anything holographic and shiny is delicious. Can you explain the creative direction and involvement of the design studio? Well i worked really closely with my friends at Dot Dash Studio on the project, and drew a lot of research from the fashion world's branding, not so much food & dining. We came up with three final choices, and actually the one I went with was a really difficult decision. I was really scared to go with something a little edgier and less pretty. What’s the big idea? I would love my own Fatties store with a confectionery kitchen at the back, and a sherbet bar! London needs an interactive place where you can customize and mix up your own flavours and colours. That’s the dream, or just find a pub that does pic'n'mix with your pint. What are your earliest memories of sweets? I particularly reminisce over licorice tobacco pipes! I went to boarding school and we had a tuck shop every Thursday evening, we would all fight to get to the back of the queue, so we’d have the most time planning how to spend our 25p. Theres no sweet i don't like, I just wish they came with more tattoos like the candy cigarettes do. What do you enjoy about Lazy Oaf? Have you followed us for a while? I’ve always followed Lazy Oaf, basically if I could wear kids prints I would! I don’t take myself too seriously. Also there's loads of dog prints! I actually have a tattoo of a dog, it’s a David Hockney drawing of his sausage dog little Booge. What advice would you give to any aspiring entrepreneurs like yourself? Ok, get out the violins! No seriously, I spent so long thinking I was going to fail, but if you enjoy it other people will, I think it will show. It shouldn’t take a disaster to shock you into doing what you love. Oh and eat fatties, and wear Lazy Oaf ! --------------------------- If you can stand the drooling follow Fatties Twitter, or try for yourself at Broadway Market ! Cat-a-fore Dungareee Dress & Woof Baseball T-Shirt coming soon.