Interview with Guest SS20 Designer: Molly Girard
With over a decade of design work under her belt as well as experience with streetwear and fashion moguls around the globe, guest streetwear designer for Nikita SS20 Molly Girard is the perfect storm of inspiration meets application. Realizing we each are merely one in a world of 7 billion, Molly strives to bring mindfulness to both her designs and her daily life. We sat down with her to hear more about her views on the world around us and get a deeper understanding of how this collection came to be.
“What I love about streetwear specifically in this time of, ‘Fashion is dead, Clothes are in’ (via trend forecaster Li Edelkoor), is that normcore fashion is for those who realize they are one in 7 billion.
This is the reaction to fashion fatigue and specifically influencer fatigue. This is when fast fashion and, more importantly, fast fashion marketing have become such a problem for the environment. It is the idea that you have to buy these on-trend pieces weekly, but once you take a picture of them and post to your Instagram… you can’t wear them again. The garments lose their value? This is the quintessential demise of our industry, in my opinion.
But the good news is that it is not over to be an influencer. It is over to use your influence to show how rich and famous you are. THAT is over.
It is NOT over to influence positive change. By providing examples of sustainable alternatives, we can become powerful in changing the world’s mindset.
So, it is great to work on streetwear brands that use the same silhouettes over and over again. Because of that, it is an easy space to move into more responsible practices. Also, what I think is great about streetwear is to see the smaller brands not care about trends. Whether that is a highlighter yellow or a weird print, it has to feel authentic for it to be true streetwear. And it just feels right because they don’t give a f***. You feel those energies from the colors and graphics. I liked the colors that we chose for this season because they are kind of random in that same offbeat sense.
It is really important to think about sustainability in creating and wearing fashion, but it goes beyond that. We need to think about sustainability from a holistic approach- inside of your body, inside your home environment, and in the global environment. It is now our responsibility as creatives, influencers and humans to create, market, buy, and support the things that are sustainable and holistic. It is a lot on our shoulders, you know? But it’s cool. ”
Check out the spring collection now.
