Hillary Taymour for French Fries #6 The Traveller
Born in New York, Hillary Taylor is the mastermind behind Collina Strada, she holds an Associates degree in business management from The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. Hillary uses her presentation with Collina Strada as a platform to address issues that are important to her.
Interview by Margherita Pincioni
COLLINA STRADA AW23 PLEASE DON'T EAT MY FRIENDS
Is it true that the brand name comes from a diminutive for Hillary?
Yes! I started the brand in fashion school and my friends in school used to say Hillary was too boring of a name for me so they called me their little Collina.
How did you meet co-creative director Charlie Engman, and how is your working relationship?
Charlie and I met through Craigs list in 2011 and now are basically family. Let’s just put it this way, he is the only favorite in my contact list because I talk to him more than any other person. I trust him and his opinions more than my own sometimes. It's been incredible to see the work we have created in the past years together. I feel very fortunate to be able to have someone as gifted as him so close to me in my life and in work.
”Sustainability is a journey”, reads your declaration of intent. What is the basis of your brand philosophy?
With technology and everything changing constantly, you have to be ahead of the curve all the time. With sustainability there are always new resources and new fabrications to be used. New ways to make clothes more streamlined etc. That is the journey to constantly stay current on how to make better clothes. This is the ethos and helps me stay sane in this chaotic industry and keep me on track of the goal of making purchasing new clothes feel less guilty.
You worked for Gucci which in 2021 included Collina Strada in their Vault project. Was it a good experience?
Working with Gucci was a dream come true that I never realized I had. I didn’t think anything like that was possible. We now have a continued relationship which is amazing.
Collaboration with the multimedia artist Freeka Tet led to the creation of Collina Land, tell us more.
Working with Freeka Tet has been fun. He is a friend now through our work experience. Charlie, Freeka, and I have a no frills approach to a task where we leave our egos at the door and really trust each other’s opinion. We each have our own skill sets that together create things that would never be able to be created on our own. Freeka can kind of do anything, from Robots to Machine Learning. He is one of the most talented people Ive worked with. It’s an amazing experience to be able to say really outlandish requests and Freeka just goes, “Oh I know how we can do that.”
Do you feel you have inspired a new fashion concept?
I try to keep my head focused forward, and not get trapped in what’s going on around me or what may or may have deemed relevant. I feel like if you let yourself think in this way it stops you from the natural evolutionary flow of creativity. This business is so fast paced you have to keep going.
You don't use many professional models, nationalities and ages are very varied. How do you choose people for castings?
I just try to cast among the community around me. Friends, moms, people I admire, etc. I feel like the beauty of Collina is anyone can look at the show and say, that could be me! It gives a sense of emotional connection and accessibility that is really special to me.
You have created a real community that fights on various fronts, such as the commitment to social causes and for change, who are your contributors?
I feel so fortunate to be able to live in this space with like-minded, brilliant, and fearless friends. My community is so supportive and truly is everyone we work with. I hate listing who are my actual contributors in fear of missing someone as I write this. I'm 3 days away from my show and have a serious fashion week brain. But I would say our contributors are people who walk the show, who we dress, and who we admire.
Most of Collina Strada's garments are made with warehouse waste and recycled materials from past collections of the brand and from the Kantamanto market, how does the process work?
I've worked with Liz and Branson from The Or foundation for a few years now. What they are doing in Ghana is amazing and everyone should support their efforts to help clean up the problems and the waste associated with “Dead white man’s trash”. Basically everyone should educate themselves about the work they are doing and the problems we are causing with our consumption.
We now work in a way where we stop the single use t-shirts that would normally end up in the dump in Ghana before they fly overseas and repurpose them into our production. It is super time consuming as every t-shirt needs to be cut by hand and made into flat fabric to go to the factories. We do it all in house at our studio.
You have collaborated with big companies, so you hope to make some real changes?
I think working with large companies is an opportunity to make better products for the planet. My theory is that with a collaboration we can show them how easy it is to make certain products less harmful to the planet and they can start producing more and more products like that in the future.
Aaron Philip states that "Collina Strada has brought back a breath of genuine fantasy and imagination in fashion, in design and in the way we interact with fashion itself." It's a beautiful definition. We love Aaron, she’s a vision and such a light in the industry.
