This season, Nellie Partow is celebrating the 10th anniversary of her namesake label. On a recent visit to her Manhattan studio the room was buzzing with what could be called pre-party jitters. But the designer didn’t let herself get carried away by the milestone moment. “I wasn’t necessarily [thinking about the anniversary], I took that pressure off the collection,” Partow said while her dog was running around the studio. “I thought, I just want to stay true to what is inspiring me at this very moment.”
What inspired her for spring was creating a “relaxed feeling.” And surprisingly for anyone that’s gotten on a plane recently, it was the idea of traveling that got her there. “I was looking at a couple of Japanese photographers, traveling the world and going to remote areas,” she explains. “There was something that I really loved about this element of throwing things in a small suitcase and then just going and having this air of freedom.” There’s freedom, it turns out, in wrinkles. Crinkle-y midi skirts and wide leg trousers (both worn low on the waist with special attention paid to volume) were done in mercerized hemps and mercerized cottons — sometimes one fabric each for the front and back — and finished with double braided drawstrings at the waist. The double tie is a signature detail in this collection, also appearing on structured peasant tops with a square neck, and as a waist cincher on dresses. There is something that does feel incredibly relaxing-yet-glamorous about throwing on a garment, securing it by tying it around the waist, and getting on with your day. It’s why robes feel so chic, even if you just wear them at home where no one can see them.
A similar pajama feeling was evoked by a wonderful black and gray wide striped suit. The jacket was just the right amount of oversized — an extra long sleeve, a little wide, its hem hitting right at the beginning of the thigh — and worn with matching wide leg trousers in the same fabric. The unexpected color palette, rendered in rainbow sherbert shades of lemon yellows and pinks and oranges, was a sudden reminder that this was a spring collection, especially a pink button-down shirt made from mercerized hemp that felt like the finest, lightest linen. “I think for the colors, [the goal was] to evoke joy,” Partow explains. Her knitwear is always a standout in her collections, and the colorblock pieces: a tank in two different shades of yellow on the front and back and a dress made from cream, orange, and pink geometric shapes (worn over wide leg trousers), certainly lived up to the expectations.
“At the end of the day, the most important thing for me is just creating an element of approachability in the way that people dress,” Partow explained. “I don’t think you have to make things complicated to feel dressed or feel good.”
Later, at Partow’s cocktail party at a local restaurant where she often has breakfast with her family, waiters passed around mini burgers and tuna tartare on little potato chips, and guests casually spilled out onto the sidewalk, and I thought, well, she’s right.
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