Anna Dello Russo, with her unique personal style, has always employed the Man Repeller philosophy of dressing for ones self. In fact she thinks we shouldn’t try to seduce others, rather we should seduce ourselves with our fashion choices. Upon sitting down with her at the Plaza Hotel yesterday after checking out her accessories collection for H&M she told me, “I think you absolutely have to dress for yourself, you are to seduce yourself. If you do not practice your fashion, you will not understand how many possibilities you have, and sometimes when you let everything go you can seduce yourself.” She went on to tell me, “I like unexpected thing, sometimes if you are too much in control you are going to lose the edgy in fashion.” Essentially what ADR describes to us hearkens back to the basic idea of dressing solely based on personal taste while disregarding external influences.
She designed this quirky accessory collection with a customer in mind whom she describes as “a crazy woman, a woman enjoying life and fashion, a non-conformist.” She effusively stated, “Young, I like young and I think young people have even more of this attitude.” With this young clientele in mind who do not fear experimental and off-beat fashion choices, the collaboration with H&M gave her free reign to create something accessible to that demographic. ADR likes that H&M “always looks for something new,” and she saw a void in the mass market for interesting accessories. “Accessories personalize your style in and it is really easy if you don’t want to reinvent your whole world you can just put on an accessory to change it up.”
Her collection offers pieces ranging from embellished sunglasses and charm necklaces to pointy gold boots and hard shell luggage for “the gypsies who work in fashion.” ADR saw the collaboration as an excellent challenge to engage in something different especially as the only non-designer to create a line for H&M. When asked why she did not design clothing for the collection, her response was plain and simple: “Because clothing is my religion.” I suggest we follow her divine law that “Fashion is a declaration of your own freedom”… so have fun, wear what you want, and enjoy it so much that you find yourself utterly seduced.
