The new label inspired by girls who play dress-up

Stuck in a rut, wanting to create for and clothe the girls around her, Savannah Davis quit her job assisting stylists in New York and made her homecoming to LA. Tomorrow, she’ll be back in NYC to present the debut collection for her new label Cleola, taking her inspiration from a “generation of girls who dress up for fun and do what they want.”

For SS17, she cites cowboys, princesses, and even a longterm obsession with Marie Antoinette as reference points. Sure enough, the clothes she’s dreamt up wouldn’t have looked out of place in Sofia Coppola’s saccharine version of the French queen’s boudoir, with bridal-like satin and lettuce-hemmed t-shirts. That is, until you get to the star-shaped nipple pasties. 

“Cleola is an adventure and a road trip only seemed suitable,” Davis shares of the accompanying lookbook for which she enlisted photographer Walker Bunting (“secret genius and one of my best friends”), Isaiah Teofilo (“creative being and friend to the end”) and her Cleola girls Alana and Sammie (both friends of friends). The adventure took them from LA to Arizona, Dallas, and New Orleans, resulting in pictures that, if you’re of a certain age, will probably get you feeling nostalgic for The Simple Life. And that’s a good thing. 

@cleola_forever