‘Get it in the post to the Beckhams’: Emma Willis on her punk Pudsey T-shirt for Children in Need

On the eve of London Fashion Week, Emma Willis hosted a BBC Children in Need fashion show showcasing a T-shirt she designed herself with George at Asda.

The T-shirt looks nothing like the safe, spotty Pudsey adorning tops of previous years. Willis’s version borrows from Nineties grunge and a little Vivienne Westwood rebellion, recasting the mascot with a punk edge.

“I’m a huge fan of Vivienne Westwood, and I’m a huge fan of tartan. I’m a huge fan of the Nineties and grunge,” she told PA Media before the show. “[So I thought] what if we touch on Pudsey having the punk aesthetic?”

She admits she walked into the first meeting nervous about her pitch: “When I went for the meeting, I was bit scared. I was like, what they’re going to say? They’re going to say no. Then I went in, and one of the designers said oh my goodness, I had exactly the same idea.”

The T-shirt unveiled at the show keeps Pudsey recognisable but adds a cool touch you don’t usually associate with a charity tee. “Pudsey is Pudsey, right? And we have to keep him as him,” says Willis, “you want it to be that something that people like, so that they buy it, and then that way we raise as much money as we can.”

Modelling alongside her on the runway were Aness, eight, and Louis, 13, two young people who have benefited from Children in Need funding.

Around the catwalk, a roll-call of British celebrities showed up to support the launch, including Professor Green, Emma Barton and Jim Chapman, who were in the audience.

On social media, Emma Bunton, GK Barry, Danny Beard, Frankie Bridge, Vernon Kay, Paddy McGuinness, Kimberley Walsh and Joe Wicks MBE are among the celebrities have all posed in Willis’s shirt for the campaign.

This year’s campaign theme is “Challenge Yourself”, and for Willis the scariest part was not sketching a punk bear but selling it. “The challenging bits were, I suppose, walking into the room and telling them your idea and hoping that they’re not going to say that’s rubbish, like, please!”

But she didn’t have a plan B, “I just thought, instead of having a back-up, we’d pivot in some way. I don’t know how, but [we’d] pivot.”

Luckily, however, she didn’t need one. Willis’s design nods to her own teenage wardrobe as much as to Westwood.

“I’ve always looked at [singer] Gwen Stefani and wished I was as brave as her […] she’s like my icon,” she admitted. “When I think back to that era, I wasn’t really brave enough. I don’t think I dressed how I really wanted to dress. But as I’ve got older, I’ve just realised, just wear what you want, express yourself in whichever way you like.”

But Willis had her punk moments. “I went in and bought a pair of tartan trousers, randomly, and a pair of skin-tight metallic silver trousers, and they were obviously really low slung, and this clear plastic belt – oh, I was adventurous back then,” she laughs.

“I remember my dad saying ‘Have you got tin foil on your legs?’ I’m like, no, they’re trousers from London. Forget it. But I wish I’d kept them.”

Some of the campaign’s celebrity supporters have already styled the shirt with metallic trousers for their promo shots, a coincidence Willis wasn’t actually aware of, “Oh my goodness, I hadn’t even thought of that. I feel like it’s all tying in – because it was in World’s End [Chelsea, London] where I bought those metallic trousers, Vivienne Westwood’s shop was.”

While it’s been sported by masses of well-known faces, one couple Willis has her eye on in particular is “Victoria Beckham – and David, they’d be great, right?

“Get it in the post to the Beckhams, the ultimate style icons, and a pretty great fashion designer, too.”

Proceeds from the £10 adult and £5 child shirts go to BBC Children in Need and Asda’s Fuelling Potential programme, tackling food insecurity and supporting children to thrive.

“I wanted the design to reflect the strength, resilience and positivity of the children it supports,” said Willis.

“Every challenge, big or small, is a way to show we care.”