90's Pastel Fever: An Exploration of Nostalgia

90's Pastel Fever: An Exploration of Nostalgia

I dove deep into the recesses of my childhood psyche to create the new Spring 2020 collection, which I'll be releasing online for sale in mid-March 2020. Observing a strong 90's influence emerging, I thought back to my life in the 90's. As I did so, an overwhelming urge to return to simpler times swept over me. I recalled the days of wall-mounted phones, clunky early Mac computers, Boys II Men, and Polly Pocket. I felt like tying my hair up in a scrunchie and watching Blossom. 

In the 90's I was in my early childhood. One of my biggest influences was my older sister, Rebecca. She was the undisputed queen of home denim alterations. She knew how to bleach, dye, fray, rip, chop and stud denim like she was Madonna's personal stylist. Between clouds at Vuitton Menswear, and dreaming about my sister's personal style, I introduced home-bleached denim chambray into the collection. 

Colors that trend in the spring are often a washed out continuation of fall's top trending colors. I decided peach must be a key collection color as the spring version of rust, which was last fall's big color. To offset the warmth of the peach, I brought in mint. It's the perfect cool color to balance peach. The peach and the mint in this collection needed to be grounded with an earthy neutral at the risk of becoming too saccharine. 

Enter a washed out olive color. Since I was already in reverential mode for one of my siblings, Rebecca the Denim Queen, I decided to also pay homage to my brother Zach, the ex Army Ranger. Meanwhile, I picked up on a military themed undercurrent emerging in fashion trends for spring 2020. Perfect, I thought. I can ground my saccharine collection with an earthy, army feeling. Some ruched cargo pants flew out of my hands. They are my favorite piece in the collection and tell the tale of my love for my childhood and my love for my brother perfectly; one part army cargo pant, one part scrunchie. I got a migraine while I was patterning them, but the result was so worth it. 

Another fabric that's important to me and to the collection this season is the bleached out placed floral cotton poplin that you'll see when the collection is released in mid-March. Of course, Greta Thunberg was a super-inspiring-viscous-beast in the media last fall. She got us all to get more real about our impacts on the Earth. I admire young women who display such passion and fearlessness. The textile in question, the bleached down floral print, represents to me how we've depleted the Earth. I hope to begin to use recycled textiles. However, they are more than double the price of the textiles I'm currently using. Us clothing designers, manufacturers, and retailers need a mindset shift in the consumer before we can charge the true worth of a recycled textile garment. When people stop seeing a garment as a disposable, short-term investment, we'll start to see a willingness to pay more for the values that we believe in. Awareness and conversations are a start, but not the end solution. 

New Collection drops mid-March 2020. 

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