MAJE

The collection is amazing! I was searching for the website and happened to found this article about Maje. Check this out. Adore the brand, that the style will never go out of season that you will definitely wear it even in spring! The designer behind the brand is Vanessa Traina, below is something about the brand.

Stylist Vanessa Traina has a sphere of influence that can only described as enviably cool: She’s modeled for Louis Vuitton, been a brand ambassador for Chanel, and has consulted by some of New York’s hottest young designers. “Muse isn’t the right word,” says Joseph Altuzarra of his close friend and collaborator. “It’s never a one-way dialogue with ’Nessie, it’s always a discussion, and that’s where her creativity is at work.” For the first time in their friendship, the shoe (or in this case, the four-inch heel!) is on the other foot: Traina has designed a collection for French fashion label Maje that bears hallmarks of her It-Girl style. She’s up at Altuzarra’s studio in Chinatown to talk about it with him. “Well, I prefer to think of it as a collaboration,” says Traina modestly. Here,Vogue captures a fly-on-the-wall slice of that conversation.

Joseph Altuzarra: How exactly did your collection for Maje come about?

Vanessa Traina: Maje asked me to do their campaign a few seasons ago and we all got along really well. We met the day before the shoot to do fittings, and by the end of it, we’d put together the proposal for a collaboration. 

 

J.A.: What was your starting point?

V.T.: I really wanted to make pieces that could slip seamlessly into anyone’s wardrobe, so the idea was a seasonless collection, something that you’d want to buy now, but wear beyond spring. That’s why it’s all in black. 

 

J.A.: And that looks like you! The clothes really feel like you.

V.T.: It’s funny, because there were times when I took the samples off the fit model and put them on just to see how they would work. Even though I’m not the same size as their fit model, I wanted to show them how I like the proportions, so they could translate that into a style that would work for me too. Honestly, as a consultant, it wasn’t too far out of my comfort zone. The difference is my name is all over these pieces so that’s a little exciting but also scary. When you take the reins on a project like this, you start thinking, “Does everyone else want to dress like this too?” 

 

J.A.: As a male designer it’s always interesting to get a purely female perspective on a wardrobe. When we work together, the first question I ask you is always, “Would you wear this?”

V.T.: Right, and I think that when women design clothes, they design pieces that they want to wear and that’s really what I tried to do with this collection.

 

J.A.: What are some of your favorite pieces?

V.T.: There’s this little chiffon top with lace inserts and a dress version of it too. There’s an asymmetric skirt, a slip dress, and lots of lingerie pieces. You can layer them. Although I must admit, I haven’t worn anything outside of my bedroom yet. I actually asked my sister [Victoria] for her opinion on a lot of the things. We always used to borrow from each other’s clothes as kids and we still do. She only lives five blocks away. 

J.A.: And didn’t you wear a uniform to school growing up?

V.T.: Yes, it was a pleated navy skirt with a white-and-navy Dickie. Of course, I wore mine with Mary Janes and little socks instead of sneakers. I definitely didn’t feel as confident about my fashion instincts back then as I do now; that’s something that comes with age. We grew up in San Francisco, so it wasn’t like there were all these fabulously dressed women walking around on the street. It was all taken from fashion magazines—images of Kate Moss, Shalom Harlow, and Stella Tennant. I actually wore a black chiffon Versace dress to my high school prom. It was in the early 2000s: beaded and very short! That was probably my best teenage fashion moment, but you could just as easily have called it my worst.

Images: Google