Pleet Please

Hah!  That was a cheap shot title and doh… no prizes for guessing what the subject matter of this post is.  Whilst I've been sweating fluids to the equivalent of my body weight, sampling Williamsburg's finest food (courtesy of Phil Oh's supreme food knowledge…), my brain has been liquidated to the sort of level where I'm unable to actually err… post properly.  I didn't even plan out any designer visits for the trip considering my work here only really took up a day…

Fortunately Brooklyn residents came to the rescue!  The borough of course plays host to many a New York designer but I had the opportunity of checking out Samantha Pleet's studio and apartment.  She is a designer that isn't about being FASH-Y (all in caps…I insist…).  She has charmed her way across USA's indie boutiques with her sensibility for clothes that girls circa my age and a bit younger want to wear, wear and wear again.  Samantha herself assets that her clothes are designer with first and foremost, herself in mind and then immediately after that, her circle of friends.  So it started with the rompers and playsuits back in 2005-6 and that has burgeoned into a fully fledged label as well as regular collections for Urban Outfitters.

Still despite the "sweet" and "cute" sensibility of Samantha's clothes, the roots of inspiration quite often lies in darker or more magical/fantastical places even if the clothes are then translated and translated again into wearable formats.  The films and lookbook images that Samantha has produced often reflect stories or tales behind the collection that aren't immediately detectable from the clothes.  The illustration below alludes to her A/W 10 collection me thinks…

As a fellow fringed person (or banged?), it's a big yay for Pleet's drawn out femmes with fringes… 

Some shapes that Pleet is thinking up… vintage style inflections of course infiltrate Pleet's work but with a little twist here and there as well as unexpected fabric choices, the designs are then elevated…

Taking a peek at Samantha's inspiration board for S/S 11, she stepped back in time and dug out home videos made in the 40s/50s featuring her very own grandparents… I'm quite jealous she has full colour footage of her grandparents and their friends… 

… that period is really brought to life with colour… 

 

Bustiers/elongated bra and crop tops galore…

This dusty chest on top of a cabinet is Samantha's childhood dressing up trunk full of fore-relation hand-me-downs… that surely needs to be in a more accessible place so that dress-up opps are more frequent?!?

From Samantha's collation of bits and bobs from the natural world, the butterfly case and other memorabilia of the great outdoors, nature also clearly influences her clothes.  At the very least she intends for her clothes to be worn out and about… 

 

A more literal manifestation of the natural influences are these paperbag waist shorts from her A/W 10-11 collection.  They actually also feel like paper too as they're made out of this incredible mud-buried silk which gives it this wafer-like crispy texture…. hmmm…. crispy shorts….

A quick jaunt to her nearby apartment and her fondness of all things green also extends to a wee frog obsession… on the left you can see a teensy tiny frog residing on her balcony.  Apparently it just appeared one day and doesn't seem to want to shift… 

 

She's also got a bit of a mini garden going on with herbs, strawberries, tomatos growing… ah… the good life I never seem to be able to achieve.  My box herbs died within a week.  Samantha however handed me a plump strawberry freshly grown.  Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall would be proud of her…

She also wakes up this lush mural on her closet painted by her friend…. 

Apologies if this is all going a bit Selby-a-like for you…. I did get carried away with a whole House and Garden slant when I saw Samantha's apartment which is light, book and curios filled… all the components for inspiration aplenty…

 

Samantha Pleet's A/W 10-11 collection is one that tells a travelling tale to her grandmother's house outside Philadelphia featuring capes, parkas, tartan, practical shoes courtesy of her collab with Osborn Design (still… have… not…decided…which…ones…to…get) as well as a delightful onesie that has teenage sleepover written all over it… 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With impeccable timing, I also managed to catch her showroom's sample sale yesterday where I picked up a Samantha Pleet Ikat-pattern bustier which actually fits my less-than-bustier-suited chest as well as some Alex and Eli fuschia trousers…

Hot and perhaps not so bothered about my bout of heat-induced laziness… you'll forgive and forget right?

(Photographs by Phil Oh of Streetpeeper)