Audio By Carbonatix
If I say Juicy Couture, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Most likely a pink velour tracksuit with a logo strewn across the rear. A lazy Sunday outfit that, overnight, infiltrated daily dressing in a way that forever soured our taste for tracksuits. And, oh, what incarnations that tracksuit saw. First spotted on fashion plates and celebs, then moving to the mom crowd, eventually covering grannies and finally dressing the Jersey Shore set.
Much like Juicy’s ever-changing demographic, the designers behind it, Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor, evolved. After selling Juicy Couture several years ago, Pam and Gela, as they call themselves, decided to jump back into the apparel biz with a new brand line, Skaist Taylor. Why?
“What else was I going to do? I tried cooking. That did not work out. We’re two best friends who created a line together. Two best friends who love playing with clothes and looking at jewelry,” Taylor confessed.
I guess, you could say it’s in their genes. Or jeans. Or both.
This time around Pam and Gela are aiming to capture the gypset (a gypsy,
jet-set hybrid) crowd, as this latest offering mixes boho with a Studio
54 disco vibe for gypsies on constant caravan. On Thursday, Miami
journalists, bloggers and fashionistas got to glimpse that collection at
an intimate luncheon when the dynamic duo landed in Coral Gables at
Neiman Marcus at the Village of Merrick Park. While lame shorts, fur
jackets, gauzy dresses and fabulous, ankle-high python booties served as
eye candy, the two made it known that this time around they are doing
exactly what they want to do.
New Times: When Juicy Couture came out, you got a
big intro to the Miami market through local celeb J.Lo. This new
collection has a lot of fur. Taking that into consideration, how do you
plan to appeal to the Miami market this time around?
Skaist: I think the Miami girl is obsessed with great clothes. Our line is for the girl who loves clothes.
Taylor:
Fur is an accessory, it’s like a ring or a bracelet or a bag. You don’t
walk out in just fur. Well, maybe some of you do, but most times
there’s a dress or something underneath of it. I think you can see from
the collection there’s a lot of strappy silk, lightweight gold lame and
chiffon that’s lightweight–all great for here. Fur is the accessory.
It’s the icing on top. It’s a tiny bit of the collection.
How do you handle the backlash from people who aren’t into fur?
Taylor:
The fashion world loves fur. It’s not really what we do, but we feel
like we shouldn’t be dictated to on what we can do and what we can’t do.
We try to buy fur humanely, and we don’t buy fur that comes from China.
But we don’t want to be told what we can do anymore.
Skaist: All
the fur you see here is byproducts. It’s Mongolian lamb, it’s shearling,
it’s all of that. And it is true, we are aware of where it comes from.
But in this day and age, with all the violence that’s going on, it just
breeds it. We are the most loving fun people. We just love clothes. We
love animals, but it’s just part of it. You know what? If you don’t want
it, don’t buy it.
Taylor: But don’t tell us what to do. {Both singing} Don’t tell us what to do. Don’t tell us what to do.
Taylor: We hate being told what to do.
What did you learn from your time with Juicy Couture that you were able to bring to this collection?
Taylor:
We’ve been partners for 23 years. At the end of the day it’s about
making clothes that people want to wear. We used to say at Juicy that if
you mix it with love, if you make it with love, the customers will feel
that. And that is something we still believe in. Juicy was a world, and
Skaist Taylor is our new world. Welcome to it.
–Ginger Harris of electricblogarella.com
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