What was your inspiration for Spring/Summer?
For the clothing line I was very heavily influenced by the 70s – Bianca Jagger, Vagabond. I also travel a lot for work, and all the different places I see inspire me. Then of course I also design with what I want to wear when it is hot out in mind! This season, it is long dresses, flowy sophisticated looks.
What is your relationship with bloggers?
As soon as I started the brand, we were interfacing with people. I was always on blogs and forums to the point that people were shocked to find out it was actually me! They thought I was an imposter. It has been a main focus of ours, to be involved with consumers and bloggers. We did a blogger tea party recently which was really fun as I got to meet a lot of the bloggers I read!
How did you start?
I started making dresses when I was 8. I went to a Performing Arts high school where I could carry on designing and sewing. When I moved to New-York I was making dresses and selling them to small boutiques. Then I came up with “the Morning After Bag”, which is one of my main designs. A website wrote about it and it sold out. I stopped the clothing for a while and focused on bags… That was 5 years ago. We just relaunched clothing this year. And now we do men’s as well under the name Ben Minkoff. I figured men probably wouldn’t want to say “oh yeah my bag is Rebecca Minkoff”.
Who would you love to dress?
I have a whole long list!
Kate Moss, Sienna Miller, Aggy was on the list but she wears my stuff now, Angelina Jolie, Florence Welch
One of the outfits Florence wore at Coachella actually inspired a little caplet I made for this collection.
Are there designers you look up to?
Alexander McQueen – he took art and made it into fashion, everything he touched was so beautiful. I am slightly obsessed with him.
A lot of established designers are over 40 and men. There is a need for younger female designers to break in the industry. I love all the couture stuff you can’t really wear, but realistically speaking you want something you can wear and look good in. As a woman that’s how I want clothes to make me feel.
Where do you normally find inspiration?
Each category has a different inspiration. For bags it is always about a treatment, different interesting details. A combat boot I saw in a vintage store inspired one of my bags, a couch quilted pattern inspired another one.
For the clothes it is more about what you want to look and feel great in. Wearable but not basic.
For the shoes, it is also a little about treatment. Take a classic and twist it up a notch.
