Collina Strada’s Copenhagen Fashion Week debut is a greatest hits remix
For Collina Strada’s first show on Copenhagen Fashion Week’s official schedule, Hillary Taymour remixes the brand’s own history, transforming archive pieces and existing materials into a collection that proves the most exciting ideas can come from what’s already there.
Ahead of Collina Strada’s inaugural show in Copenhagen this week, founder Hillary Taymour had been thinking about the almost two-decade-old New York-based brand’s all-star looks and what they might look like today. “A little bit of the greatest hits of my favourite silhouettes of Collina Strada, and not overthinking it,” she explains of the SS27 show, supported by The Climate Pledge. “We’re making really exciting things out of things that we already have in existence because we have such an abundance here. There’s a softness and prettiness to it that speaks to the collection.”
The collaboration came to fruition organically after Hillary struck up a conversation with the committee in New York last year, she recalls. “I took part in an intimate roundtable discussion with [The Climate Pledge]. It just felt like a good fit, and it felt like a really good exercise for us to see what it’s like to take the team across the sea, see how that looks for us and how to navigate it.”
While working on the collection – and simultaneously chipping away at September’s New York Fashion Week line – Hillary had plenty of room for reflection, allowing her to carve out an expansive collection replete with intricate fabric manipulations and techniques that ran rampant on the catwalk. Kaleidoscopic waffle textures were mixed with signatures from SS23 and SS24, while an unrestrained palette sat alongside delicate chiffon florals. “I don’t think people realise that I have been doing this for 18 years, and we have such a huge depth of work that feels like it doesn’t always get recognised. So I’m excited to revitalise those moments.”
What, in particular, has she enjoyed most about this journey? “We’re creating these new ideas with fabric manipulation that feels fun,” she says. “I’m such a show pony – I love putting on a show and making it as over the top as possible. I just want to bring that energy here and see how it’s received.” As for how best to describe the brand nearly 20 years into its journey: “You could say we’re pastel goth.” The pastures might be different, but Collina Strada’s commitment to unbridled fun is as strong as ever.
I made a decision when I turned 30 and was like, ‘If I’m gonna do this, I don’t want to be the problem. I want to be an example or a solution, and just do the best that I can, and not have a guilty conscience on my hands with what we’re creating
HILLARY TAYMOUR
Right now, I’m just purely inspired by nature and animals, and being in trees. Also, the evolution of Collina Strada has been quite strong, and I just want to continue to figure out how to make women feel amazing.
HILLARY TAYMOUR
Hey, Hillary! It’s not your first time in Copenhagen, but it’s your first time on the official schedule, taking up the guest spot, no less. What was it like working with The Climate Pledge team? And what did this creative exchange look like?
They’ve been really amazing, and they gave me free rein to be me, which is awesome. Copenhagen Fashion Week is already quite a sustainable fashion week, and we made all the clothes out of materials that were already in my studio.
How do you think creativity and climate consciousness can influence each other, especially as a designer in the industry right now?
I made a decision when I turned 30 and was like, ‘If I’m gonna do this, I don’t want to be the problem. I want to be an example or a solution, and just do the best that I can, and not have a guilty conscience on my hands with what we’re creating.’ So it felt really refreshing to be able to make a collection out of things we already had, and it was almost a blast from the past, opening a box and being like, ‘Oh my God, we can reuse this in this way.’
Tour dressing and celebrities were on your mood board for the collection. What else inspired you?
Right now, I’m just purely inspired by nature and animals, and being in trees. Also, the evolution of Collina Strada has been quite strong, and I just want to continue to figure out how to make women feel amazing. Our mood board was all the different fabric manipulation techniques that we’ve done, and what we haven’t used: a million different flowers, chiffon flowers, and compiling it all together in one line.
What would you say are the greatest Collina Strada hits?
I love the muscles from the Stronger AW24 collection – I think that was inspiring for lots of other designers’ moments, which is great. I mean, can’t complain about that. So we have that in the show again, and then just some of our long bias dresses. Our SS23 collection had a lot of greatest hits in it, and I always gravitate towards that collection because it was one of my favourite shows.
How did you distinguish between the designs for CPHFW and your upcoming NYFW show?
They’re so different. The pieces from the New York show will go into production, whereas this collection was about how I could recreate new, beautiful garments that don’t look like the previous collections with the same materials that we have here. I was able to make pieces that aren’t easily replicated, and I got to play with my own design elements in that way, which is really fun because I don’t necessarily need to sew these clothes. They’re more one-of-a-kind pieces that we can loan and have as our archive, which feels good.
What was the goal with this collection?
What’s different about Collina Strada, or what I try to do, and I hope it is perceived that way from the outside viewer, is that we bring so many different elements to a show. We always have a hair look and we always have a make-up look. We’re working with Eugene Souleiman for the first time on hair, and I’m so excited about how crazy we can go. When he saw the [hair] mood board, he was like, ‘Well, I haven’t seen a deck like this in a very long time,’ and I was just like, ‘Go as crazy as you want!’ I’m bringing my girl Liz Goldson over for casting, who has done a lot of work in Copenhagen before, so she’s quite familiar with the vibe and people.
What do you want people to feel in your designs?
There’s still a lack of female designers who make clothes for women that feel good on them. As someone whose weight has always fluctuated, getting dressed in the morning is such an important part of my day, and defines the rest of the structure of my day. It’s dependent on whether I’m happy in my outfit. I can only imagine what that would be like for a person who’s maybe more insecure than I am, or maybe less confident in certain areas of their life – an outfit is literally everything to most people, and it gives you the power to change your day and change your life.
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