Collina Strada is all about the fun narrative for AW22.
Doesn’t steam. Does eat pastrami. Those are two of the dilemmas faced by fashion-dazzled Tommy Dorfman as she negotiates her new, highly desired internship at Collina Strada. The narrative plays out in The Collinas, a short film that Hillary Taymour made with director Charlie Engman, in lieu of a fashion show. Taymour screened the film at the famed Angelika Theater on the last day of NYFW.
With tongue-in-cheek writing and on-point campy performances by a host of Dorfman’s peers (Aaron Philip, Jazzelle Zanaughtti, Indira Lynn Scott, Rowan Blanchard) and non-peers (Lisa Love), The Collinas made for gleeful non-runway viewing. Entertainment came with a sweet message of inclusion, and not only about racial, gender and body-type, as might be expected of a brand described on its website as “a platform for social issues and awareness.” (For Taymour, casting diversity is a given.) Rather, when Tommy eats meat and drinks from a disposable cup, her Collina co-workers cackle a bit behind her back, but they don’t ostracize her; they even admit to being mutually “obsessed” with her. It struck as a non-pedantic, wonderfully engaging way of noting that we can all do better.
The clothes, which the cast wears throughout the film, are best seen as the credits roll, and they look great. Taymour’s carefully considered creations feature outsized proportions and pastiche layerings of the sort beloved by young fashion adventurists and perhaps intimidating to everyone else – a big green silk shirt belted low over an asymmetric dress and wide printed pants; hot pink zebra-striped crushed velvet coat over and endless lilac faux-feather scarf and bright green leaf-print cargo pants; new takes on the quirky Marie Antoinette pannier redux that’s become a house signature.
The ebullience is contagious, and the items should play beautifully to an inclusive clientele (well, maybe not the metallic denim pastie bra): cfull-cut shirts; cargo pants; pretty, fluid dresses and spiffy outerwear, all worked in a happy palette with a focus on Taymour’s beloved prints. Together, it all says “express yourself” -- and find joy in getting dressed. And if you don’t feel like steaming the pants, what the heck.
