How Pippi Longstocking and Fried Eggs are Inspiring a New Bill Blass

"We have all these bound copies of old magazines in the archives and I think this was maybe in an old Town & Country—I loved how all the clothes were very colorful. So much of what I found [in the archives] was really simple clothes in really interesting colors or fabrications and embellishments. That's what I love about this–pushing the idea of bright colors and how to wear them but keeping the clothes straightforward. That's a theme we used for the launch collection."

"For whatever reason I've always loved a fried egg in general. I love the color, I love breakfast, it's become this funny character for Bill Blass, for this incarnation of the brand. We've gone really deep on the meaning of it: everything's better when you put an egg on it (a burger, bibimbop); the egg also represents a new beginning; the greatest test of aptitude for a chef is to cook an egg perfectly. It has all of these funny connotations. I like that it feels particularly American and straightforward, simple. All of our hangtags on every product have a little fried egg sticker."

"I guess at one time Bill Blass had some collab with The Bell Telephone Company. The clothes [in the ad] are Bill Blass and I think the phone is just a rotary slim-line phone from the '70s. I love the weirdness of the clothes and how these small ruffle details are in every collections—that's something we co-opted for the launch. We looked heavily at the early '70s and what the origins of American sportswear are—we looked at Tupperwear and all those plastic, unnatural colors, like that weird mustard color. Also, like, what are [these women] doing? It's so unnatural. And that's what's great about it too."

"This is a velvet two-piece dress with ostrich trim from the archives. I just think it represents that this is also part of Bill Blass—it's the opposite of what I think of as Bill Blass. It's very Phyllis Diller, Carol Channing, kooky and theatrical in a way. But also, the shapes and the clothes themselves are very straightforward and simple. It's more about embellishment, treatment, and print."

"I love how cartoonish this is. It's almost costumey but still simple and cool. I love the spirit of it. We have these images that evoke a certain spirit and that's what's pulled through here more than shapes or fabrics—it's just this sense of fashion with no rules. We tried to think about the company more as being a product design company rather than a fashion company. We're just trying to make great cool products that people want regardless of trend. Bill Blass has always been about this—it was never about doing goth because goth is in or doing a hippy music festival moment because that's what everyone is doing."

"I just love the vintage feel of this photo. I love that she's on Astroturf, which is so '70s, plastic, saturated, and has this against nature feeling. There's this strange angle. Everything about the image is strange to me. The fact that she has such long roots—it's not something you see in '70s photography. It represents for me that Bill Blass was pushing the social norms and was very conscious that fashion was a young business and had to keep changing and challenging the normalcy of the happy medium that everyone defaults to."

"For me, it's felt like there's an irreverance that's forever missing in fashion. Fashion is always so serious. There are certain companies that are whimsical—which I also don't like, it can go very sweet. But there's this confident humorous cool American spirit that I want to capture with Bill Blass. I thought this image with the colored background was so funny and exactly the tone of what we're doing."

"I love this photo, it's totally hilarious. It's smart and funny. Everyone has an association with Pippi. I remember seeing the movies in the theater. It's so '70s in its color palate. It almost looks like a recolored black and white movie still. We have sweaters and vests that are Pippi in their styling."

"[Hockney] just has great personal style. We looked at the way he pairs rugby shirts with hospital scrubs and striped shirts with a striped tie. It was about bringing the tomboy spirit to everything."

"With Bill Blass it's always about this confident, irreverent American woman. I love this photo of Mama Cass – she's like, 'I'm just gonna lay here in this bed of flowers.' It looks so modern. I think it's from the '60s. Florals are a big part of the Blass print canon. The color story is so great–navy blue background. And it's about remembering that women are every size and shape—it's not about always tall and skinny—it's about from where are you generating your confidence and humor and personality. "