The starting point for the Timo Weiland fall/winter 2014-15 collection was a weekend upstate with creative director Timo Weiland, design director Alan Eckstein, and head designer Donna Kang — who are fresh from an Ecco Domani Fashion Prize win — in the Hudson River Valley to celebrate the birthday of their men’s stylist, Haley. “[It was all about] bringing the city with us to this rustic, beautiful place,” explained Weiland. “We were all dressing up. We had dinner parties, a lot of fine wine, fine food.”
The collection did indeed carry that whole city-meets-rustic vibe that Weiland was talking about, incorporating comfortable knit sweaters with frilly skirts. Materials ran the gamut — silk wool, metallic foiled leathers, custom Italian printed leather, curly shearlings, Persian lambs, and baby alpaca. Funky chevron stripes were all about, on fitted dresses, full skirts, and a standout long-sleeved navy, black and white knit dress embellished with fringe at the bottom.
Edge fused with prep in the form of a cropped lamb leather moto jacket paired with a plaid shirtdress. Painted dots were another motif that were sprinkled throughout on skirts, sweat tops and an evening dress. One of the strongest pieces of the show was a the “Ellie” coat, a navy, grey and black number which consisted of a trip striped tweed and the “Bianca” knit skirt, that had intersecting black-and-white stripes.
And how do they describe the girl they design for? “She’s our friend, she’s a part of our family really,” said Weiland. “It’s an extension of our personalities, and it’s really the city, it’s our circle of our friends — it’s us.” This collection fit the bill perfectly, as we can picture it on all the cool girls of downtown New York who they run with.