Flower Models and “Farm-Tastic” Clothes: Inside the Making of Collina Strada’s Innovative Spring Collection Video 

Photo: Hunter Abrams 

The set for Collina Strada’s spring 2021 collection video seemed pretty standard at first glance. There was a sign-in table where temperatures were being taken and masks and sanitizers were being handed out. And there were makeup chairs, a vegan-friendly craft services table, racks of clothes, and some heavy-duty film and photo equipment. But this wasn’t a typical fashion shoot—far from it. Designer Hillary Taymour and her collaborator and best friend, Charlie Engman, were actually in the process of building an entirely new world. 

In the middle of the pandemic this summer, Taymour decided that, in the absence of most physical runway shows, she wanted to translate her work into something that doesn’t exist in reality, but maybe should. “Flowers can be models, right?” she asked. “Anything, anyone can be a model in this digital runway world—that’s the point,” she added. Taymour and Engman worked with local New York illustrator and artist Sean-Kierre Lyons on a series of psychedelic characters that blend flowers with the likenesses of some of Taymour’s friends and frequent runway models, including poet and artist Precious Okoyomon, disability activist Emily Barker, and curator and writer Kimberly Drew. The characters were then turned into 3D animations by Jefferson Wenzel. Taymour and Engman also filmed their model friends frolicking around various farms and landscapes in upstate New York, skipping through fields, and running through waves on a beach. Taymour titled the video and collection “Change Is Cute,” and described it as “a utopian virtual world of tie-dyed cornfields, sprouting carrots, floating gardens, and a Collina-print rainbow.” 

On the set that day, several friends, including Alexandra Marzella and her baby, Earth (who was in the womb as his mom walked in Taymour’s last show), as well as Mission Chinese Food owner Danny Bowein, strutted, bounced, and played jump rope in front of a giant green screen. There were pogo sticks too. “More vibes?” Taymour asked the crew as one model did her catwalk for the cameras. “More vibes!” they all cheered. Indeed, there were plenty of joyful vibes on the set, and watching this cool community build its own Technicolor commune was a reminder that fashion can be both an agent for change and pure, unadulterated fun.