Summer2020 Landingpage 1 1

Spring 2020

Hope for Flowers by Tracy Reese

View profile
Launch
Tue - Apr 14, 2020 6:00 pm - 6:30 pm EDT
Status
Finished

Interview for the Spring 2020 collection by Leslie Reese

Leslie Reese: So let’s talk about your Summer 2020 collection. It’s so vivid with color and drama! There is boldness and loveliness, volume and movement, not just in the construction but in the prints, as well. What came first when you started to design this collection?
Tracy Reese: For me, fabric always comes first. I’ve been focusing on textiles as a way to create more sustainable or earth-friendly clothing. So most of what’s in the collection is made from organic linen and organic cotton. I am also using some of the cellulosic textiles like tencel and cupro, which are derived from more sustainable forestry. Those are the fabrics that are more drapey; they’re more silk-like.

L.R.: You’ve mentioned that this collection took inspiration from the work of artists Simone Leigh, Cy Twombly, and Elizabeth Catlett.
Tracy: In terms of assembling all of my inspiration I think certain things just reach some sort of “max point” in your consciousness and then you realize, “Hey! These are the things that are inspiring me right now. How can I adapt them into ideas for clothing?”
I had the opportunity to meet Simone Leigh last year - which was incredible! She invited me to a talk at the Guggenheim, which I attended with Thelma Golden - a super-treat! It was an impressive gathering of intellectuals in the art world (women of color), so that was easy to be inspired by.
Simone Leigh’s work is so beautiful and the shapes played into some of my favorite themes for Summer. Honestly, I’m always thinking about flowers! Some of her pieces have these little curlicues, these rosebuds, that are the hair of the figures that she sculpts. Black women’s hair.
With Cy Twombly there was an exhibit of his work at, I believe it was at Gagosian. I’m so glad I went to that exhibit. Seeing so much of his work in one space was really beautiful, and I was inspired by his use of color. I saw flowers in a lot of the abstraction and it felt fresh and modern to me.
Rosebud BlouseWe’re producing a blouse and a dress in Rosebud Print for the Summer 2020 collection that goes back to Simone Leigh. Actually, it is the combination of the little rosebuds of her sculptures and a painting by Cy Twombly that looks like a spiral, but it feels like a flower, and it’s bright yellow and orange. The combination of those two inspirations informed some of the prints in the collection and then when I went into the story, there was indigenous art that sort of echoed the Twombly and it was just another way to express the same shapes.
With Elizabeth Catlett, I had already sketched the collection and colored it in with a working palette of pinks and jade, yellows, and oranges. I looked at everything and I thought, “there’s an opportunity to take these clothes in a second direction.”
I was attracted to the boldness of Elizabeth Catlett’s strokes, and the clarity of line and volume in her pieces. There’s a purity of shape that comes through in her sculpture and linoleum cuts. It’s very stripped-down, and very….I want to say “honest and true” but those aren’t the words I’m looking for. I used her work as the inspiration to envision a second life for the styles that I had originally created.
I also want to mention the photography of Malick Sidibé. The inspiration I took from his work is more of a mood. There is a lovely, natural formality to some of his pieces that feels very personal, yet with a great sense of moment. That’s a mood that I want to instill, or infuse in all of my pieces - not just this season, but all of the time. I want the clothing to feel personal, and for there to be a sense of moment as well, so it doesn’t just feel like “more stuff.”



L.R.: It looks like you only have one pants style in this collection. Was that on purpose?
Tracy: I asked myself, “do I need to have multiple pants silhouettes in this collection?” These crop trousers kind of did the trick, and I liked it with all of the tops. That’s part of sustainability, too. I may do a tighter edit where I don’t have to have dozens of styles to express an idea.
When we talk about sustainability, it’s in every facet of the work so every season I don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Maybe there are some styles from last season that I want to explore further, either by adding embroidery or changing fabrication, or moving a blouse into a dress silhouette. It’s less taxing for development because we work with what we already have. The ideas aren’t dead. You don’t have to scrap everything and start from scratch every season.



L.R.: You have always done wonderfully classic pieces….
Tracy: That’s always been my goal. I mean, every now and then you’re just infatuated with a particular trend and you want to “go there,” but that can’t be the meat of the collection. I want these pieces to last; that’s at the heart of sustainability as well.

Download the Press kit for Designer X

Download presskit

Ask Hope for Flowers by Tracy Reese about Spring 2020

Name

Email

Ask a question

Your question was submitted successfully

After the designer has answered it will appear here

All collections