Tell Me About It, Stud! A New Fashion Collaboration Reimagines Grease in 2018

Simon Miller x Grease

Everyone remembers the first time they saw Grease. The 1978 movie-musical was an instant classic, starring a crew of slick California teenagers navigating love and friendship while wearing very tight pants. Olivia Newton-John’s sweet turned spicy Sandy captured America’s hearts, as did John Travolta’s too-cool-for-school softie Danny Zuko. We all wanted to live in the ’50s, attend Rydell High, and join the Pink Ladies or the T-Birds. Designer Chelsea Hansford was in the fifth grade the first time she saw the film. “I was at home watching it on a big screen with my sister,” she says. “Naturally, we were singing and dancing around the couch. We were so excited, we watched it every single day after school for weeks. It never got old.” And it’s still not dated in 2018, which is why Hansford and Daniel Corrigan, her partner in the label Simon Miller, decided to team up with Paramount Pictures on a special capsule collection that celebrates the 40th anniversary of Grease.

The lineup consists of men’s and women’s black waxed denim, leather biker jackets, T-shirts printed with stills from the film, Grease-ified versions of Simon Miller’s popular Bonsai bags, and more, all of which is available today exclusively at Nordstrom Space. Beyond touching on stylistic elements from the original film, the collection is also a loving tribute to its youthful California lifestyle, which is always at the core of the Simon Miller brand DNA. “I remember being in middle school and watching Grease with my uncle in L.A.,” Corrigan says. “Being from a small town in Washington State, I thought Los Angeles was the end all be all.” As Hansford points out, this was a “natural collaboration due to the style in the film.” She adds, “We tried not to go too literal with the silhouettes, but we couldn’t resist reinterpreting the classic capris of the ’50s in modern dark rinse denim, along with the mechanic “Rizzo” shirt and skinny waxed black “Sandy” jeans.” The designers also note that they incorporated the color red on nearly every piece, even in small detailing, as a tribute to “bad Sandy,” which we meet in the very final scene. With its smart aesthetic references and updated classics, Simon Miller’s capsule is a cool tribute to the film that taught us all what cool looked like in the first place. In other words, Grease will never go out of style.