A Backstage Moment with Whitney Pozgay
WE'VE TEAMED UP WITH THE STYLE LINE ON A CURATED STORY SERIES FEATURING MOMENTS, DISCOVERIES AND STYLE FROM BRAND ASSEMBLY DESIGNERS! FOR THE FIRST INSTALLMENT WE'LL PREFACE THE STORY WITH THIS: BY NOW IT'S NO SECRET WE'RE HUGE FANS OF WHITNEY POZGAY AND HER ARTFUL TAKE ON FASHION. SO NATURALLY WE WERE EXCITED TO SPEND SOME TIME WITH HER BACKSTAGE BEFORE HER NYFW SS16 PRESENTATION AT PIER59 STUDIOS IN NEW YORK. CHECK OUT OUR CONVERSATION BELOW AND HEAD TO THE STYLE LINE TO SEE EVEN MORE BACKSTAGE MOMENTS.
FOR THOSE WHO ARE DISCOVERING YOUR BRAND, PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF! WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO CONVEY TODAY?
I'm Whitney Pozgay, I'm the designer of WHIT! Spring is our biggest and most favorite season. My husband and I are both from warm weather climates so this is the best season to really go after prints and colors and texture and mix everything together. For this collection in particular, we really pulled a bunch of elements, but started with the idea of a Hot Air Balloon Safari over the Savanna. So we have artist collaborations with Adam Handler who did a big giraffe [print] for us to bring in the animal element and then my husband did a bunch of tribal prints but with sport tape - so it's kind of re-appropriating things in kind of an art/tribe vibe with the natural elements of [things like] an African Lily mixed with something like this rainbow printed stripe. We also wanted to play with the traditional prints and patterns that we use in a more natural way. [For example] the polka dots are a little more subdued and [in] including more gingham and stripes we love but turning them on their head a bit.
ALL OF YOUR COLLECTIONS SEEM TO DRAW UPON SO MANY ELEMENTS, ESPECIALLY WITH ART. WOULD YOU SAY THAT'S A FUNDAMENTAL THAT YOU KIND OF "ASSEMBLE" IN EACH COLLECTION?
We love collaborating with different artists on the prints. My husband paints a lot of the prints and we kind of like to think of that part of the story first. We start with the artwork first because we just really love that use of pattern and color and from there we kind of develop the structure of what the whole line looks like.
SO WOULD YOU SAY THAT'S LIKE THE SQUARE ONE OF YOUR DESIGN PROCESS?
Yeah, it definitely it is - and kind of picking the new too. We pick newer moods as we're going into it and then we think of all of our friends who are artists and think who do we want to tap into? Who would be a good fit for that theme? For this collection in particular we were excited to work with Adam Handler, we just started doing animals and he does do a bit of a tribal feel in the way that he draws and we thought it was nice to kind of bring that in. We always like to think about how we can take a theme that people recognize but turn it on it's head to make it fresh.
YOU HAVE SUCH A VIBRANT COMMUNITY HERE TODAY. THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE! HOW DO YOU FEEL?
It's always so fun! I mean our favorite thing is to collaborate with friends. My husband is a painter and paints a lot of the prints so we get to collaborate together. Each season it’s through the concept of a print or a set design, so it’s always been a community for us. To pull it all together and to work with friends is the most fun for us.
LAST QUESTION, WHAT’S ONE QUESTION YOU WANT PEOPLE TO ASK YOU MORE OFTEN ABOUT THIS COLLECTION THAT YOU HAVEN’T BEEN ASKED?
Oh that is a very good question! You know, I think people think of us as a lot of color and print and it is feminine, but I think there really is a cleanness to the silhouettes and we really wanted to stress that in this collection. It is very versatile. This collection in particular, there is a lot of ease and modernity to it, I think it’s not as vintage-inspired, it’s definitely clean and kind of crisp. We wanted to stress that, because it’s really at the core of who we’re about which we wanted to hammer home. There’s an ease to it: It’s modern, it’s clean, but it’s still fun!
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