Long-time friends, Marissa Ribisi, Giovanni's twin sister and Beck's wife, and Sophia Banks have banded together to create a fun and wearable Spring collection.
Plaids, big stripes and funky prints graced kimono-sleeve cardigans, tunics, jumpsuits and t-shirt dresses. Solids were not ignored; bright hues like cobalt blue, neon yellow and hot pink made appearances with silk tops, footless tights, oversized cardigans, high-waisted skirts, and off-the-shoulder tees. Screen-printed tees included unicorns, guitars and the ABCs. It's obvious the designers paid special attention to denim. They were skinny, colored, cropped, folded, and finished with a white fly button. All were well-made and fit the models like a glove.
To see the rest of their playful collection and to read my exclusive interview with Marissa and Sophia of Whitley Kros, read more
Talk to me a bit about your inspiration.
Marissa: The whole thing is two worlds coming together. She's from Sydney, I'm from LA. We said let's pick street names, so it's Whitley in LA and Kros in Sydney. We said that sounds like a girl so let's create a character. She's kind of like this traveler because that's what inspires us: traveling and being on the road. The concept for the line is if everything fell out of her suitcase what you would see. This collection is inspired by the Japanese Fuji Rock Festival. It's a rock festival but everyone's dressed in colorful outfits and it's rainy and muddy but they're all dressed up and really happy and cute. That's why the collection is colorful and bright.
What is your favorite piece from the collection?
Sophia: It's kind of what we're wearing.
Marissa: There's this sweater (the one she's wearing), it's really multi-functional because we're into that kind of thing. So you could wear it as a dress or as a sweater over jeans.
Sophia: I'm really into the t-shirts. We also have jeans with ABCs printed all over them.
Marissa: The main thing are the jeans. We spent eight months working on the fit. They look amazing on the models.
What was the biggest challenge you ran into along the way?
Sophia: Finding good enough quality. Finding the right people to sew the quality you want.
I noticed you didn't have much of an online presence yet...
Our website went up yesterday! Whitleykros.com. We're working on it. We're going to be huge online; it's one of our goals.
Who are your personal style icons?
Karen O from Yeah Yeah Yeahs, PJ Harvey and Sia Furler from Zero 7.
What is one wardrobe staple that every girl should have?
Jeans. Whitley Kros jeans.
I like the colors & the blue dress at the top