Librarians and Jane Birkin Inspired Kaia Gerber’s Capsule Collection for Re/Done

Kaia Gerber has a Re/Done T-shirt in her closet that she got about 10 years ago and still slips on regularly. “I wear it all the time, and it just gets better and better,” says the 24-year-old model, actress, and Vogue September cover star, citing its worn-in, buttery feel. “That’s a testament to it being, truly, the only thing you could ever need in your life.”
Born and raised in California, Gerber deems T-shirts and jeans the most essential part of her wardrobe.

“I was always like, ‘You just need a good pair of Levi’s shorts and a white T-shirt, and that’s all.’ And then when Re/Done came out, I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is everything I say you need—and the best version of it.’”
This isn’t just lip service; Gerber is so dedicated to the brand—which has developed a cult following amongst LA cool-girl types (and those who aspire to look like them)—that she signed on as an investor, creative partner, and advisory board member earlier this year.

Next week, the brand launches Kaia Vol. 1, a 60-piece capsule collection that serves as the manifestation of that partnership. “What I have always loved about Re/Done is that even as it’s grown, you never feel like you’re losing the personal, intimate experience of shopping there—which, to me, is a large part of the appeal.” At this point in her life, Gerber adds, she’s “been the face of things, but I’m ready to be more hands-on and creatively involved.

Then I met Meredith, and I was like,

And then I met Meredith, and I was like, I don’t care what I have to do, I need to work with this person.”
Meredith is Meredith Kahn, Re/Done’s head of design, who signed on just over a year ago. One of her first tasks was working with Gerber on the collection, but the two discovered they had something of a hive mind, sharing references that were eerily aligned and going on vintage-shopping trips for inspiration (let it be known that Gerber is a Pinterest super-user, with some 40-plus inspiration boards—complete with elaborate names—going at any given time).

“We have the same sensibilities,” Kahn says. “For the collection, it felt like Kaia gave license to the brand to expand,” Kahn adds. “Re/Done was originally T-shirts and jeans, of course—this casual, undone, California lifestyle brand. But at the same time, I’m from New York, and Kaia has spent time living in New York, and has that New York sensibility, that sophistication.

Having Kaia as part of [the brand] became this invitation to create a little bit more of that sophisticated, metropolitan spirit in the collection.”
Added to that style profile was “French librarian circa 1969” and a sprinkle of the eternal muse of undone mystique, Jane Birkin. All this translates into bohemian tie-front blouses, slightly cropped polos, a silky babydoll dress with ruching across the bust, pinstriped blazers, and outerwear styles that include a leather trench, vintage-looking shearling, and an officer’s coat in khaki.

Both Kahn and Gerber say that in creating

Both Kahn and Gerber say that in creating the collection, they weren’t focused solely on how it looked, but also how it felt on the body—so much of the magic came during the fitting process. Asked for favorite looks, Gerber notes the jeans named in her honor, of course—a slim-straight cut—and the Walker dress, a fine-gauge knit mini in crimson with long sleeves and a large cut-out at the back.

Kahn, meanwhile, sought to recreate a comically oversized workwear-style jacket that she’s long loved, and thus the Worken jacket was born, with its slouchy silhouette crafted from a patinated, faded canvas. That both those pieces—the flirty dress, the masculine jacket—can exist in one collection goes back to the lodestar of Birkin, who could smash two oppositional things together and somehow make them work.

Indeed, the pair imagined the collection as one that could work from day to night and fit into the closets of a variety of women, from femmes to tomboys. For what it’s worth, this editor found the cheeky slogan tees (one reads “Plot Twist”) particularly fetching. The collection comes to life in the first campaign, photographed by Bella Newman, with creative direction by Jen Brill and styling by Taylor McNeil.

It sees Gerber as a librarian, reading alone

It sees Gerber as a librarian, reading alone in her city apartment, with a dusky cityscape in the background. “It’s so refreshing, as a woman, to be sexy on your own terms and in a way that you genuinely find sexy—rather than other people telling you that you look sexy or you’re doing something that’s sexy,” Gerber says. “It was just such a wonderful space we got to play in, because it was a very safe space and on our own terms.”
Speaking to the duo, there’s a feeling that this collection was a labor of love, in the sense that Kahn and Kaia Gerber really fell for each other in the process.

“Meredith has been such an incredible mentor to me in so many ways,” Gerber says. “After the shoot, we all went and got dinner and drinks, and Meredith and I were crying, saying how much we meant to each other.”
“To discover yourself with someone who has impeccable taste and also truly sees you and not just sees you where you are now, but sees all the different possibilities of who you can be, that’s who Meredith has become for me,” Gerber continues.

“And so to be able to create art from that kind of relationship is just beyond my wildest dream.”

Source: www.vogue.com