Designer Hillary Taymour has been busy at home the last couple of months, quarantining with her best friend and frequent collaborator, artist Charlie Engman. Taymour’s brand Collina Strada, like most small, independent fashion businesses at the moment, is in a state of deep freeze, with orders put on hold and unanswered questions about how to proceed with the next season. But Taymour was determined to stay optimistic through the crisis, so she and Engman started working together on a special project. They were already crafting and DIY-ing things for their personal wardrobes.
Taymour decided they’d create a collection of 44 pieces of loungewear (her cool, bedazzled, tie-dyed take on it, that is) and auction the items online with all proceeds going to various charities. The “Quarantine Collection” includes sweatpants, hoodies, tees, and masks made entirely from fabric scraps and leftover materials in Taymour’s studio, much of them hand-embroidered and dyed by Engman and Taymour herself.
“We tried to think of causes that we cared about but those that also related to the spirit of the pieces,” Taymour told Vogue. “For example, we used fabric that I had from Ghana and have been working closely with the Or Foundation (a non-profit focused on reducing garment waste).” The funds raised from the sale of those pieces will be donated to the initiative Dead White Man’s Clothes, which collects data surrounding the secondhand clothing economy in Accra, Ghana, and provides education to try and help eliminate material waste. “With Collina, I am super focused on helping in any way that I can, and we kept making so many things at home I figured, let’s do something to give back,” Taymour adds.
In addition to providing relief during the pandemic, the project was a chance for Taymour and Engman to stretch their creative muscles. They organized a photoshoot at Engman’s house, which involved the two of them plus their model Sasha Melnychuk. They all wore masks and kept a safe distance while shooting. Hairstylist Tomihiro Kono created wild, pastel-hued custom wigs made from leftover hair he had in his own studio. The point was to capture the mood of crafting at home, though through the dreamy, psychedelic, and collaged perspective of Taymour and Engman’s imaginations. As Taymour explains, it was about “not having to stick to a standard.”
Taymour’s “Quarantine Collection” goes on sale today through Memorial Day Weekend and all profits will be distributed among 22 charitable organizations including Action Against Hunger, COVID-19 Caring for Homeless Youth, Farmworkers’ COVID-19 Pandemic Relief Fund, and Navajo and Hopi Families COVID-19 Reflief Fund.