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“In New York I’m going to have a big career in fashion, make the world a better place, and look hot whilst doing it.” So go the opening lines of The Collinas, the 13-minute The Hills parody that the fashion brand Collina Strada presented their fall winter 2022 collection via. Tommy Dorfman is our Lauren Conrad-inspired ingènue, who makes the jump from Los Angeles to New York to partake in an internship at Strada’s label. Those opening lines are delivered with a deadpan Valley girl drawl, a clear and obvious send-up of the heyday of early Noughties reality TV culture. But they’re also… true, of designer Hillary Taymour at least, who has asserted herself as one of the most-hyped names on the New York Fashion Week schedule, while staying committed to a rigorously sustainable business model.
Throughout the ‘episode’ Dorfman—hapless but impeccably dressed—rubs shoulders with the rest of Strada’s new-season muses, all of whom are wearing fall winter ‘22. There’s the actress Rowan Blanchard, the artist Chloe Wise, And Just Like That breakout star Katerina Tannenbaum, Marni creative director Francesca Risso… there’s even a cameo from The Hills OG Whitney Port. Each plays a bit-part character—a model backstage preparing for the runway, a design team staffer serving a lunch of raw broccoli and carrots (when Dorfman brings out a pastrami sandwich for lunch the rest of the team gags, “I literally haven’t seen a dead animal since 2013,” says Tannenbaum)—painting a chic but slightly ridiculous picture of life in the Collina Strada universe.
Joking aside, Taymour’s eclectic, acid trip visual sensibility lends itself perfectly to fashion’s current obsession with all things Y2K, and her deft ability to modernise that era’s sartorial tropes were on full display for FW’22. There were low-rise cargo pants and micro pleated skirts worn with lashings of studded belts, baby tees worn worn over clingy ‘tattoo’ shirts, mesh overlays and oversized crushed velvet puffer jackets. It was great fashion, but as with everything Colina Strada too, it was rooted in a strong ethical sensibility and an even stronger sense of community. Among those cast were Angel Prost, Taymour’s partner, who also created the soundtrack, and director Charlie Engman’s mother. The model and activist Aaron Philip is a longtime friend and muse of Taymour’s too.
And while the film poked fun at the self-seriousness many fashion brands approach their own sustainability programs with, there’s nothing funny about Collina Strada’s commitment to ethically crafted fashion. Taymour calls her brand “a platform for social issues and awareness”, rather than a fashion brand. As well as creating genderless collections, Taymour uses cutting edge sustainable fabrics like rose silk (fully biodegradable and extracted from the natural waste of rose bushes) as well as recycled cotton and upcycled deadstock fabric. Still, she calls sustainability “a journey”, which involves a constant commitment to finding new ways to reduce waste and lower fashion’s carbon footprint.
