After just three seasons heading up Marc by Marc Jacobs, Katie Hillier and Luella Bartley left those positions last week when Jacobs decided to merge the diffusion with the main line (Katie Hillier will continue to work at the big brand). With the dust barely settled, the two English designers have announced that they’re launching their own luxury line, Hillier Bartley. They will be releasing their first fall/winter 15 collection in stores from August and it will include women’s ready-to-wear, bags and accessories, with British fabrics for the clothes and the bags made in Italy.
It’s not a kneejerk project after leaving Marc by Marc Jacobs though. Luella said in a statement, “Hillier Bartley is a very personal project which Katie and I have been working on for years. It is a culmination of everything I have learned as a designer and a woman and is purely and defiantly about the clothes and fabrics. We have also looked at the women we admire, what we would want to wear and the inspirations that have been close to us for ages. Its ultimate heroine lies somewhere between Ian McCulloch and Katherine Hepburn. It’s about a woman our age, indie by heart, rakish and irreverent by nature, who is maturing into refinement and naturalness.”
Katie said meanwhile, “Now we are finally putting all our experience into making something that’s a reflection of us, of what we want to wear. I’m really proud of what we’ve made – the craftsmanship, attention to detail and design. It’s been a real labor of love and I am really looking forward to seeing women we admire carrying our bags and wearing our clothes.”