[lucy92]

MATTHEW WILLIAMSON is teaming up with Macy's to launch a new capsule collection. The 30-piece range will include evening and daywear, featuring embellished dresses, playsuits, blouses, leather jackets and printed scarves. Prices start at $50 (£31).
"The collection aims to capture the essence of the mainline brand, with a focus on effortless glamour; dynamic prints; loosely structured silhouettes, and pops of strong colour," says Williamson.
The pairing is hoped to rejuvenate the American department store and to entice a younger customer-base. Previous joint design projects have included a collaboration with Kinder Aggugini, while Karl Lagerfeld will be next in line.
"The most important thing is finding designers that best represent what the trends are of the moment," Macy's Inc. executive vice president of fashion and new business, Molly Langenstein, told WWD. "This spring, the Seventies prints and colours are strong influences, and Matthew exudes those. He is tremendous at pops of strong colour and he does dynamic prints reminiscent of the Seventies and the disco era."
The collection will launch on April 13 in 225 stores and on MACYS.COM.

[lucy92]

excerpt and images from wwd



Williamson will give a bright, bohemian edge to Macy’s selling floors, creating embellished day and party dresses, printed scarves, and day-to-evening rompers, among other items, about 30 styles in all. The line launches April 13 in 225 doors and on macys.com. Prices will range from $50 for a blouse to $150 for dress, with some more expensive items, such as leather and suede jackets, priced up to $300. An advertising campaign with model Dree Hemingway breaks Tuesday.

Macy’s executives acknowledge the store doesn’t command a fair share of the younger fashion market, and does a better job selling traditional and better brands for the misses customer. But they’ve been trying to pump up the Impulse contemporary floor by bringing in guest designers to create exclusive collections with a run of about two months each on the selling floors.

“The most important thing is finding designers that best represent what the trends are of the moment,” said Molly Langenstein, Macy’s Inc. executive vice president of fashion and new business. “This spring, the Seventies prints and colors are strong influences, and Matthew exudes those. He is tremendous at pops of strong color and he does dynamic prints reminiscent of the Seventies and the disco era.”

Said Williamson: “The collection aims to capture the essence of the mainline brand, with a focus on effortless glamour; dynamic prints; loosely structured silhouettes, and pops of strong color.”

British designer Kinder Aggugini, due to his tailoring skills and trends favoring more structured products such as jackets, kicked off the series. Karl Lagerfeld will follow Williamson. A fourth designer also will create a capsule collection but Macy’s has not revealed the designer’s identity. Langenstein said with each capsule collection the intent is to capture as close as possible the designer’s aesthetic but at the Macy’s price point.

[ChrissyM]

definitely more curious about this than i was about kinder aggugini...
also wondering if karl lagerfeld's stuff will start a frenzy... smart move on macy's part

[ChrissyM]

pics are a little bigger in this tFS article http://www.thefashionspot.com/style-...igns-for-macys

[Street_a_Licious]

i do wonder how it'll compare to the H&M pieces...

[ChrissyM]

is it starting to feel like some of these designers are serial collaborators?

i understand that they're coveted of course... but do you think they might be "go to" people for collaborations since they've done them before?

i think it's interesting to see who's pairing up with macy's...
they don't really seem to have the "edge" that a lot of these other retailers like h&m, or even target (who has such a long history of tapping fashion people from todd oldham to isaac mizrahi for their brand)

[lucy92]

karl lagerfeld is a serial collaborator.

i think karl's stuff will definitely start a frenzy. i'm glad not many people seem to know about the matthew williamson collection. more stuff for me.

matthew williamson is launching his MW diffussion collection soon. but prices are still high for it. much higher than his collection for debenhams.

i hope the belt in the image with the yellow dress is for sale.

[Street_a_Licious]

i think it's understandable tho. after all, the designers get a lot of money out of collaborations and i'd say their involvement is rather minimal.

[ChrissyM]

photo gallery of the entire collection: http://news.instyle.com/2011/03/22/m...photos-prices/

[lucy92]

macys.com/impulse also has most of the looks up modeled.

i think the 119$ dollar maxi dress is the nicest. some of the blouses are OK also.

[thedanae]

Front page on tFS today - The Love List: Matthew Williamson for Macy's

[ChrissyM]

launches today... has anyone checked it out yet

i'm assuming it's online...
going to mosey on over to macys.com to see what's going on

[lucy92]

i checked it out last night in macy's at downtown crossing.

they did not have all of the pieces in stock. the only piece i would consider that they had was the puce leopard blouse. and i wouldnt pay 59$ for it...i wasnt impressed with some of the quality on some of the other stuff. the material looked a bit rough on some of the blouses. i think most people will prefer the dresses instead.

instead of getting any of the matthew williamson stuff i purchased a kinder auggugini blouse for 17$. (that collection was marked down 40% or more - they had also restocked it for some reason)

the matthew williamson scarves looked OK. they had plenty of those and they were only 25$ or less.

i'm going to wait until next month when these items are marked down to possibly make a purchase.

[ChrissyM]

thanks for the little review lucy!
i feel like i should go check it out on my way home (natick collection is not far from my work) but i also don't really NEED anything... and try to avoid paying full price whenever possible.

We'll see what my mood is like later in the day...
i might just wait until next month to see what's on sale but chances are i'll forget

[lucy92]

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