Debbie Harry needs no introduction, yet she cannot be defined. The Blondie lead vocalist, actress, author and general pop culture icon has never boxed herself into a single thing, blending genres of fashion in music. Still, she isn’t done adding to her resume: Debbie Harry is also a fashion designer.
Enter Wildfang, a genderless brand that's all about being whoever you want to be and dressing however you want to dress. And since Harry has always been authentically herself, pioneering music and style in sometimes provocative ways, the two naturally came together to collaborate.
Harry has always made things her own, DIYing pieces in her closet with safety pins and hardware, so she added rock and roll elements to all of the pieces in the collection, like removable chains and lots of grommets.
"We knew from the start the collaboration had to feature our suiting," Wildfang Chief Product and Creative Officer Taralyn Thout tells PAPER. "It’s what Debbie knows and loves from us. We began to go through her fashion archive, which in itself is iconic, for inspiration and her red carpet look from when Blondie was inducted into the Hall of Fame stood out. It was so elegant, but also punk rock at the same time, and we instantly knew this was the direction we needed to take for this collection, refined but edgy. She was very hands on in the design process, pulling items from her closet for inspiration. She dictated features such as silhouette choice, lining design, use and placement of chain and grommets, and even hand selected the recent photo of her to feature on the t-shirt."
The six-piece collection includes a slim cropped pant with a grommeted waistband, a double breasted blazer with grommets and a removable chain for styling customization, a long sleeve button-up, a cropped button-up, a convertible sweatshirt and a graphic tee.
At Blondie's recent show in Belfast, the brand shot the collection campaign, with Harry literally rocking the pieces on stage. Below, see the campaign while PAPER chatted with Harry from her New Jersey home about finding inspiration in New York City, her signature style and how we're never too old to "be idiots."
Tell me about designing clothes for the first time!
I am not a designer. What am I? I am good at combining unlikely elements, and it's always been fun.
What elements felt necessary to make sure the clothes had your vibe?
I love metal. I guess it comes from starting out with safety pins. Safety pins really worked some magic for us back in the day. In fact, I feel naked if I'm not wearing a safety pin. I have to have one for good measure. It's just sort of the rock and roll thing. We started with motorcycle jackets, true to form for rock and roll. The grommets and leather and chains and that kind of jewelry. So this is a very sophisticated interpretation of that, very elegant and something that a lot of people can wear so it's diversified. You can make it casual, or you can make it a little more formal or fancy or whatever.
Do you think you’ve stuck to a signature style, or has your style transformed through the years?
It's a toss up because I'm not a kid anymore by any stretch of the imagination, yet my nature and my personality is fun and funky. But I realize that I have to project more sophisticated and age-worthy. And how does one do that? I think that ageism has changed a little bit, and hopefully we get to be idiots as long as we like and carry on and have fun. I'm not “facing the abyss,” as it were.
How do you think that the music you're making and listening to has translated into how you present yourself visually?
When I’d get dressed, I'd have the music on and be getting in the mood so that definitely would affect what I was wearing when it comes to writing songs and putting music together. Sometimes what it gives you is a lot of visual images. It might suggest color to you, and it might suggest a period in history or something like that. Later on, when you've recorded something, and it tells a story that's more specific, then it becomes a real style statement. But it takes a while for that to happen.
Are there specific time periods, other musicians or designers that you’re inspired by fashion-wise?
Of course, yes. I can safely say Courrèges — those little white gogo boots. I've been a part of the fashion world and the music world for a long time. And as a kid growing up, I was very aware of what was going on, what was coming out, what was in the magazines, what was on TV.
I always think that it's fortunate that we came up in New York City, specifically, because it was like so much candy. Here it is. There's all this stuff. You can just gobble it up. That was me. I was looking at everything. I was copying, copying, copying, copying.
Do you still find inspiration in New York City?
Absolutely, but it's hard for real artistic types to afford living in Manhattan now, which is very sad. And there was a time in New York when there was housing for artists that was very reasonable. There should be more of that. It's hard to make art and try to sell it, and then on top of that, pay your rent. It's always been a struggle, and it probably always will be. And maybe that's what makes artists see things differently because they have to.
Emerging designers basically have to do collaborations with corporate brands to get funding to then be able to create what they want. Isn’t it an interesting time to be a young artist?
I think you have to think back to Caravaggio or Da Vinci and how they had to placate the Church. They could only make paintings of stories from the Bible. So it's like that. That's how art has always been. It's a collaboration between corporate interests and artistic interpretation.
One of the things I think that Wildfang really felt when they started doing this was that the comfort zone was something that really meant a lot to them and being very tasteful with that and at the same time making it their own. But I do think that they should sell a lot more chains.
Available now at wildfang.com.
Photography: Nicholas O'Donnell
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