Collina Strada
What can we say? We adore the energy of Collina Strada. Watch the movie. Fall in love.
Hillary Taymour partnered with the illustrator of the Animorphs book series, David Burroughs Mattingly, and collaborators Charlie Engman and Freeka Tet to make graphics that transform her cast of star models like Aaron Philip, Ruby Aldridge, Jeremy O. Harris, and Kathleen McCain Engman into various animals. We love that while she takes sustainability extremely seriously she makes everything playful and fun. There is much needed joy in this film.
Social-Work
Social-Work is only a few years old but has already found a permanent place in our hearts. Established in 2018 by Italian-born, Shanghai-raised Parson’s grad Chenghui Zhang, it creates a dialogue between eastern and western styles in a purposefully androgynous vein.
Social-Work is also hard core committed to production transparency –going so far as to feature the specific makers of each garment on their website– as a way to raise the social dialogue of who, where and what is behind our clothes.
For F/W 21 the collection was inspired by Zhang’s everyday life in post-pandemic NYC and the ‘90s of south China where she grew up.
It is drawing on collective experience, evoking ideas of youth and retro-color blocking. Combined with looks that reminiscent of the 90s: Floral Knitted Sweater inspired by Lily flowers that belong to family portrait from childhood; Reverse Fair Isle Sweater; Detachable Jacket can easily separate become two pieces; Two-pieces denim Jumpsuits and Zipper separated Leather Pants. Mixing up with the classics, collegiate stripes, Pointed color-blocked cowboy boots.
Colors are brilliant, vivid pastel-hues with high saturation that drawn from Technicolor film and Piero Portaluppi architecture. The Silhouette is a relaxed fit for both men and women, with a reference to utilitarian uniforms, knits, and tailoring.
Studio 189
Studio One Eighty Nine was co-founded in 2013 by Rosario Dawson and Abrima Erwiah, and is both an artisan produced fashion lifestyle brand and a social enterprise. The brand is made in Africa and produces African and African-inspired content and clothing. They care as much about the people creating their garments as they do about the people who will eventually wear them.
The collection, entitled Legacy, is inspired by traditional patterns, symbols and techniques interwoven into cloth that communicates our values, history and message to future generations. The Fall 2021 collection was designed with sustainability and building products meant to last in mind by the use of zero-waste materials, recycled materials, and patchworking.
We focused on supporting the supply chain with the collection by using traditional techniques such as hand-batik, hand-weaving, patchworking, natural indigo dyeing, basket weaving, recycled cotton and upcycled denim from second hand clothing sent to Ghana that we buy in the local Ghanaian market.
We find the use of traditional Kente cloth in the collection an important aspect. Because it’s so cheap to buy clothes on the second hand market it has been hard for the traditional textile weavers to keep in business. Bringing attention to the beauty of this textile and the stories behind it may help revive an appreciation for it in Ghana and create one everywhere else.
Theophilio
Born in Jamaica, but now headquartered in Brooklyn, NYC, Edvin Thompson, the designer for Theophilio, took the last couple months of quarantine as inspiration for his latest collection. His Solace Collection is centered around the heroes from 2020 and into present day. Teachers, front line workers, protestors, and activists all have inspired our lives and are the backbone of the world, driving real change.
Drawn from “The Matrix,” Edvin Thompson, designed the collection with the idea of having to choose between the red and blue pill. The red pill represented an unpleasant life-changing truth, while the blue pill represented blissful ignorance. The Solace Collection is intended to give comfort in uncertain times, driving this desire to look and feel good by being your true self.
With mostly blue and green tones, Theophilio is bringing some brightness to this crazy winter wonderland right now. With the silhouettes and cut outs of the blue and green midi dresses, they are sure to be a trend to watch out for this spring. The lightness of the fabrics and bold tones caught our eye immediately.
