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Emily Ratajkowski is likely one of the most photographed women on the planet, so she knows the power a good outfit in a paparazzi shot can hold. And earlier this summer, when she stepped out in a denim jacket and noticed someone taking a picture, she had a feeling people might ask where the mysterious jacket was from. “Everyone kept asking me about it—the buttons said EmRata—and I was, like, ‘You’ll see! Just you wait!’” Ratajkowski tells Vogue. Well, now the secret is out: That jacket was one of 21 pieces from Ratajkowski’s capsule collection with AG Denim, debuting September 6.
The model and author is no stranger to daring denim: She’s recently worn baggy jorts, and in 2021, she wore a bra top and wide-leg jeans as a Canadian tuxedo. However, for the EmRata X AG capsule collection, she focused on making elevated classics, tweaked just so for the right fit. “These are things that I just wish I had,” she says. “I do love denim, a lot, and being able to create my ideal pair of jeans and my ideal jean jacket was just selfishly really great because now they exist in my closet.”
The capsule—priced from $98 to $625—is rounded out with a faux leather trench, a brown cargo miniskirt with a matching cropped blazer, and some wear-everywhere tanks and turtlenecks. “I really wanted there to be a level of sophistication to the clothes,” Ratajkowski says.
That polish was key. Ratajkowski wanted to design a pair of jeans that “almost acted like slacks.” She elaborates: “I wanted a grown-up denim situation.” The result? A high-rise, dark wash, straight-leg pair that can be dressed up or down.
Despite this desire to make really great, basic pants, Ratajkowski says she’s been “wilding out right now a bit,” when she gets dressed. A recent redhead, she’s found the drastic color change has made it “really fun to get dressed.” (It’s fun to watch too, as evidenced by the low-rise slip skirt she recently wore with a Baby Phat chain belt).
As a result, she’s looking forward to fall and the opportunity to mix prints and layer pieces with abandon—marking a new, bolder era for her style. “I think that fashion really used to intimidate me. I felt like there were rules that I didn’t understand,” she says. “The rules are meant to be broken, once you understand the rules then you can have fun. I think I also, in general, take it less seriously than I ever did before. I’m less afraid of risk.” That’s the kind of self-assuredness that fashion plates tend to have in common. But sometimes? You just want to wear a perfect pair of jeans.
Shop key pieces from the capsule collection, below.
