Bella Freud Fetes J Brand Tie-In
BELLA’S TAKE: Bella Freud marked the launch of her collaboration with J Brand in true British style, gathering friends and family in a whimsical English garden this week near her west London home.
The venue was surrounded by London black cabs bearing the J Brand and Bella Freud logos. Inside the garden, the likes of Laura Bailey, Alisson Mosshart and fellow designer Jess Morris lounged on cushions casually placed on the floor and by stands serving English breakfast tea.
“I always walk past this garden on the way home, so when it came to launching the collection, I thought why not try something different?” said Freud, pointing to a pony that was making the rounds in the garden and entertaining the event’s younger guests.
The mood of the event was also in line with the new capsule collection’s insouciant aesthetic. “I knew the kind of silhouette I wanted from the beginning: I was thinking of Anita Pallenberg in the Seventies wearing denim,” said the designer, referring to the former model and Rolling Stone muse who passed away in June.
To capture the effortless, boyish spirit of the collection, Freud tapped Ella Richards, the granddaughter of Pallenberg and Keith Richards, to model in the campaign for the new line.
The 25-piece collection consists of an A-line denim mini skirt and loose straight-leg jeans that hark back to the Seventies. Among the standouts are a long-sleeve fitted jumpsuit in black denim and a boyish denim jacket with snap studs.
“Working with the J Brand team and understanding the fit, the difference the stitching or the rise of the trousers can make taught me a lot. It’s a science,” added Freud. “I’ve always had denim on my mind, and I think working with brands that are experts in the category is the best way to learn before considering doing it on your own.”
Freud also created new iterations of her popular cashmere sweaters and printed T-shirts for the collaborations, which come in playful pastel pink or sparkly gold shades and bear phrases such as “Pretty Baby” and “Boy Girl.”
The collection will be available to purchase at merchants such as Selfridges and Net-a-porter at the end of July, while customers will also be able to pre-order pieces on J Brand and Bella Freud’s own e-commerce platforms as of today.
Prices range between 95 pounds for a T-shirt to 345 pounds for a denim jacket.
“I want to be accessible in terms of the distribution and our reach and J Brand was a great partner for that,” said the designer.
Launch Gallery: Bella Freud x J Brand Capsule Collection
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