Collina Strada Stirs the Pot in CPH

Hillary Taymour has no intention of blending in. She built Collina Strada by refusing the safer option.
For Collina Strada’s first show at Copenhagen Fashion Week, the designer worked only with materials already in the studio, turning existing fabrics into one-of-a-kind pieces.

The collection took shape through limitation, allowing those constraints to determine what comes next.
Submission Beauty is spearheading the makeup for the show, extending that same spirit through glitter, texture and beauty designed to make the clothes stranger rather than simply complete them. In a city known for a more controlled visual language, Collina Strada arrives with contradiction, shine, humor and an instinct for disruption.

Ahead of the show on Thursday, Taymour speaks with Submission about creating spectacle without excess, the limits of perfect sustainability language and the creative freedom she found by working with what she already had.

PHOTOGRAPHY JULIA KHOROSHILOV @jkhoroshilov
INTERVIEW JESPER GUDBERGSEN @yessirjesper
HAIR DAVIDE PERFETTI @davideperfetti_
MAKEUP LINDA GRADIN @lindagradinmakeup @lateliernyc

Hi Hillary ! Last time we spoke, you told us fashion shows were your favorite part of the job. What can Copenhagen give you that is different from New York ?
Copenhagen gives me the opportunity to slow down a little and create something that feels more personal. It's a chance to have a different conversation with a new audience and make something that's a little less expected. I was able to make things that don’t necessarily need to be reproduced so the technique could really shine over anything else.

This collection is different from what’s showing for SS27 in New York in just a few weeks - can you share a little about what is different, and what freedom this show has given you?
Everything will be different from in this show. With CPHFW I will be showing clothes entirely made from whatever we had in the studio. We are offering one of a kind pieces with interesting fabric manipulation as well as a lot of shine. 

CPHFW has a very unified voice; clean and simple, minimal, very Scandinavian aesthetic across the board. What’s going to happen when the Collina Strada world lands there?
Hopefully we'll stir the pot a bit. I love that Copenhagen has such a strong point of view, and I don't think the answer is to blend into it. Collina Strada has always celebrated contradiction, humor, messiness, and a little punk. I think it's healthy when different perspectives collide, you end up appreciating both even more.

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What is the most Collina Strada animal currently living in your head?
My dog Powie

You once said that you want your audience to remember your shows and carry their favorite Collina Strada moment with them. What kind of memory are you hoping to leave in Copenhagen?
I hope people leave feeling lighter than when they walked in. Fashion can be emotional and weird. If someone walks away still thinking about one look, one performance, one feeling, or one unexpected moment days later, then I've done my job.

How closely was the beauty concept developed alongside the clothes this time? Was there already a beauty world emerging before Zenia and Submission entered the conversation?
Beauty is never an afterthought for me. It always develops alongside the clothes because it helps build the character of the collection. There was already a strong beauty direction in my head before we started talking, but collaborating with Zenia and Submission made it bigger and more fearless.

What made Zenia and Submission feel like the right beauty collaborator for this particular moment?
I wanted everything to feel quite punk and completely unapologetic. I kept thinking: more glitter, more texture, more attitude. Zenia and Submission immediately understood that energy. They know how to create beauty that feels expressive instead of perfect, so it felt like the most natural fit.

You and Zenia have each built brands around the idea that environmental responsibility should affect the product itself, rather than simply the language surrounding it. Where did you recognize that shared point of view in one another?You can tell when sustainability is something someone actually builds with versus something they market. We've both always believed the work has to speak first. It's about making better decisions behind the scenes, experimenting with materials, and being honest that there isn't one perfect solution.




  • What should the audience feel five seconds before the show starts?
    Anticipation

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Complete the sentence:
Copenhagen is about to become…..more entertained

Runway shows are temporary by nature, but they require an enormous amount of material, labor and waste to produce. How do you make something spectacular without losing sight of what remains once the show is over?
We think about that from the very beginning. We borrow instead of buying when we can, reuse materials, work with existing resources, and try to design sets and props that have another life afterward. Spectacle doesn't have to come from excess, it can come from creativity. Sometimes the best ideas come from working within limitations.

Fashion is increasingly fluent in the language of sustainability, even as the industry continues to produce at an impossible pace. What still feels meaningful to you within that conversation, and what has started to feel hollow?
What's meaningful is action. Trying new materials, repairing systems, paying people fairly, producing less, being transparent about what's working and what isn't. What's become hollow is treating sustainability like a marketing campaign. Nobody is perfect, and pretending to be doesn't move the industry forward. I'd rather have honest progress than perfect messaging.

What do you want the makeup to do to the clothes - complete them, disturb them, make them funnier, make them stranger - what do you hope the conversation will look like?
Definitely make them stranger. I love when beauty pushes a look somewhere unexpected. The makeup should create tension and shouldn't just match the clothes. I want people to wonder about the character they're looking at, not just the outfit they're wearing.

@COLLINASTRADA